Book on the Universe

...things, whether mine or those of others from whom I took them, they are to be corrected by fault (for there are almost no fewer errors than words from the Typographers), to be corrected until the work written in Syria comes forth. For not all my writings are with me now. But why I should again fall into this care, before I come to the description, it seemed good to open in a few words. For above all, one must render an account of one's undertaking. The most excellent, most happy, and most admirable place in the entire sublunary world is the Terrestrial Paradise, which it is certain from the sacred texts was planted or placed from the beginning in the East of that very region from which Abraham was first called. But he was called from the eastern part of Syria, and came from Chaldea into the western part, in which Moses, the nerve and avenger of his posterity, wrote, so that he might come thence to Christ promised to him in that same place. Since the Meridian circle is the base of the point of East and West, it is necessary that Syria, whose nobler part, subjected to its own meridian, shows the place of Paradise, be established as the most noble part of the world, and held as it truly is. Since he could have been destined by God to be called from the impious fire-worship of Nimrod, if a place contributes anything to piety, it is most certain that holy Syria, into which he was led, is of the most excellent constitution for founding religion and predestined for establishing the base of the universe. Adam, never having been driven from Paradise, returning to the Syria of Judea, from whence he had been taken, would not have wished to make the first sacred place of the world through his own burial, as we see in the burial of all saints and supreme princes...