ABSTRACT
The medieval West knew nothing of the real Indian Ocean. As late as the mid-fifteenth century, the Catalonian mappemonde in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena shows utter ignorance of the Indian Ocean. Nevertheless, there had been some progress in the fifteenth century. This was due primarily to the rediscovery of Ptolemy, who, unlike the ignorant Roman geographers who were the main source for medieval cartographers, knew the Indian Ocean fairly well. The opening of the Indian Ocean not only marked the end of a long period of ignorance but also destroyed the very basis for the myth of the Indian Ocean in the medieval mentality. Psychological taboos must have played a role for some missionaries and merchants. Antiquity experienced a brief critical period with regard to legends about the Indian world, what Rudolf Wittkower calls an enlightened interlude. The oneiric horizon reflects the psychological repercussions of the very structure of medieval trade.
