ABSTRACT
Geographical studies in medieval Europe, like other branches of knowledge in that period, developed by incorporating scientific and philosophical achievements of classical Greece and Rome into the framework of Christianity. Geographical interests formed an important part of medieval education and worldview, but geography was not instituted as a separate discipline and geographical studies did not yet have a distinctive name. The term geographia was used very rarely until the fifteenth century, and special geographical texts usually bore titles such as Cosmographia (Cosmography) or De Orbis Terrae (On the Earth). Different genres could accommodate geographical information: biblical commentaries, encyclopedias, histories, special geographical treatises, and accounts of pilgrimage.
