16 Medieval Myths Some People Still Believe Today

1. Everyone Believed the Earth Was Flat

The popular notion suggests that medieval people thought they might sail off the edge of the world into oblivion. This misconception gained traction through Washington Irving’s partly fictionalized 1828 biography of Columbus.

In reality, educated people in medieval times knew perfectly well that the Earth was spherical, a fact established by ancient Greek astronomers. Medieval scholars like Abu Rayhan Biruni even calculated the Earth’s circumference with remarkable accuracy.

Both European and Islamic scholars regularly created astronomical models and navigational tools that would have been impossible with a flat-Earth model.