A book a day: Alain Corbin: “Terra incognita”

Original language: French

Original title: Terra incognita

Translation: Marco Aurelio Galmarini

Year of publication: 2020

Valuation: Between recommendable and okay

I could have started by saying that this is an exciting book about the advancement of knowledge about the planet in the 18th and 19th centuries, which could have been very valid to decorate the belt, back cover or lapel. If we deflate the hyperbole a little, we would not be very far from an objective definition of this text that examines, or so it claims, something as unusual as ignorance (unusual as an object of analysis, I mean), in this case about the physical characteristics of the Earth. Since the usual thing is just the opposite, analyzing the discoveries that have shaped science, the change of focus seems very attractive to begin with.

Alain Corbin is a historian known for delving into what is called the history of sensibilities, something that, from my limited knowledge of the subject, I believe is quite close to the microhistory or history of mentality, that is, looking not so much at the great characters or fundamental events such as in the psychology and perceptions of the general population, the common people. In this direction the author focuses on how ordinary citizens contemplated this planet of ours, its geography and climate, the age of the Earth, the most devastating geological phenomena (volcanoes, earthquakes), meteorology and its most extreme consequences, the configuration of the seas and mountains.

The most interesting thing about the book is precisely that exposition, which peppers the various chapters, around the conception that ordinary people had about these realities at the time analyzed. Ideas with religious roots were still very much in force, such as the supposed consequences of the flood, and naturally the lack of knowledge of the environment opened the door to fears about the end of the world, ideas about hidden paradises in remote places or monstrous presences. Much of this perspective derives from localism: faced with the difficulty of travel and communication, people knew their immediate surroundings reasonably well, especially with regard to winds or rain, but were completely unaware of anything that was happening further. beyond a few kilometers. The rest was Terra incognita, large white spots on maps and strange events attributed to supernatural reasons, or simply accepted as a fatality. All of which has as a consequence the terror of the unknown, the planet as a hostile place that advises not leaving one’s homeland.

Scientific advances, explorations in distant lands or in mountainous areas, were a matter of study and passionate discussion in very small circles, and none of this reached the majority of the population. Knowledge is permeating very little by little, more rapidly since the mid-19th century, thanks to improvements in mobility and the gradual introduction of texts, some with great popular impact, such as the novels of Jules Verne. Ignorance is giving way and what are in principle sometimes controversial discoveries and in very restricted areas, are gaining ground in broader layers of the population.

All of this is very interesting, although to tell the truth I think Corbin doesn’t find the right way to present it in the appropriate way. The book is structured in three chronological blocks in each of which ideas about the same mysteries are presented: the Poles, the glaciers and the sea trenches (one of the most curious points), the mountains, the meteorological phenomena, the geology and hydrology, among others. Which leads, in my opinion, to an excessive fragmentation of the subjects and prevents a more linear reading, to the point of moving away from what seemed like the initial objective. It is not easy to examine the evolution of ignorance without delving into a story of the discoveries, and in this way the text at times approaches a conventional story and sometimes loses the attraction it promised.

However, I think it offers an at least partially new perspective, and helps us immerse ourselves in the psychology and point of view of our recent ancestors. The real world must have been much smaller for them than the one we know now, and outside that realm ignorance was filled with fantasy, myths or religious beliefs.