Sardinia In Geographical Descriptions 69
From this point of view, Sardinia is defined through two characteristics: its
insularity,2 and its location within a Mediterranean space that had been ex-
tremely well known and described since antiquity.
Descriptions of any island were subject to certain guiding principles hand-
ed down from Latin geography, including establishing its geographic situation
through its orientation to the continent and other islands while providing its
overall dimensions (width, length, perimeter, distance from other islands or
the continent); and specifying its defining features—usually related to its in-
sular character. These main features were already to be found in Pliny’s Natural
History (first century) and Solinus’ Collection of Memorable Things. They were
synthesized in three texts from late antiquity that would have a lasting in-
fluence in the Middle Ages. In the geographical portrait at the beginning of
Orosius’ Seven Books of History against the Pagans, one learns that Sardinia lies
a short distance away from Corsica (20 miles). To the south it faces Numidia, to
the north it faces Corsica, on the east it borders on the Tyrrhenian Sea which
looks towards the city of Rome, and on the west is the Sardinian Sea. Orosius
also provides the island’s length (30 miles) and its width (80 miles).3 In the
sixth book (on Geometry) of Martianus Capella’s The Marriage of Philology and
Mercury, Sardinia is described as lying in the first gulf of Europe, which corre-
sponds to the Western Mediterranean, along with its orientation, its slight dis-
tance from Corsica, and its dimensions (which nevertheless differ significantly
from those given by Pliny).4 Capella gives the origins of the name as deriving
from Sardus, a son of Hercules, and its shape as resembling a man’s foot, hence
its other two names, Sandaliotis and Ichnusa. He ends by taking note of the
small islands around it. Sardinia also appears, along with Corsica and Sicily,
in the list of islands that Isidore of Seville puts at the end of his description
of the world (Etymologiae, book XIV). The bishop of Seville provides similar
information (the origins of the name, the size and location of the island, the
form like that of a foot—but with the added specification that the western
coastline is smaller than the one on the eastern side) but he adds elements
found in part in Solinus’ Collection of Memorable Things. Its insular character,
which is endowed with prodigious particularities, is highlighted: “like other
Mediterranean islands, Sardinia is not home to snakes or wolves, but a species
2 Nathalie Bouloux, “Les îles dans les descriptions géographiques et les cartes du Moyen Age,”
Médiévales, 47 (2004), pp. 47–62.
3 Orosius, Historiarum adversum paganos Libri VII. Histoire (contre les Païens), ed. and trans.
Marie-Pierre Arnaud-Lindet (Paris, 1990) 2, 101–102, p. 40.
4 Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. Les noces de Philologie et de Mercure, VI,
La géométrie, ed. and trans. Barbara Ferré (Paris, 2007) 645, p. 32.