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The idea that the world was a sphere, it was found, actually was shared in Europe in the 15th century by most intelligent people. Any popular impression that it originated with Columbus is quite wrong. Still it was only a theory. Nobody had tested it, or seemed inclined to do so until Columbus made his first voyage.

Probably the foremost proponent of the idea was the Florentine cosmographer Toscanelli. He became a "crank" on the subject. He was convinced not only that the world was round but also that it was practical to sail around it westward to Asia. Toscanelli himself was no navigator, and he presumably was a poor man. His only hope was to persuade somebody else to test out his theory.

He had tried in vain to interest the king of Portugal, which then was Europe's chief maritime nation. He had laboriously constructed his chart, based on scanty records of the geography of far eastern Asia, possible rumors of westward voyages, and his own mathematical deductions on the size of the earth. The latter were quite wrong.

In his letter to the Portugese court, Toscanelli stressed the great wealth and glory which would come to any nation or individual first to reach Asia by sailing westward. Apparently, he sought nothing for himself other than vindication of his theory.

Columbus had the same idea at about the same time. In 1474 he himself was at Lisbon, trying to persuade the king of Portugal to finance a voyage of discovery to the westward. He failed to make any headway but heard about the Toscanelli chart. He wrote to the Florentine requesting a copy and also any other information he might have about lands across the Atlantic. Toscanelli complied at