ABSTRACT
William Caxton’s Mirrour of the World is his own translation, printed in 1481, of the French prose L’Image du monde by Walter (or Gossuin), of Metz, a work based on an earlier Latin text. In its first section appears the image of a man wandering around a spherical world like a curious fly:
Yf so were and myght so happene that ther were nothing upon therthe, watre ne other thinge that letted & troubled the waye what somever parte that a man wold, he might goo round aboute therthe, were it man or beste, above and under, which parte that he wolde, lyke as a flye goth round aboute a round apple. In like wyse myght a man goo rounde aboute therthe as ferre as therthe dureth by nature, alle aboute, so that he shold come under us. 1 (our emphasis)
(If it could ever be the case that there was nothing on the earth, no water or anything else that hindered the way a man wanted to go in any direction, he could go around the earth, whether he were man or beast, over and under, to which ever part he wanted, just as a fly goes around a round apple. And in the same way a man could go all over the earth as far as it extends in nature, all around, so that he would come beneath us.)
