I would love to see us expand the resources in the repository so that it includes more ancient and oriental Flat Earth cosmologies and models. I feel that aside from any insight we could gain from them (which might be considerable), it's important that we chart the history and progression of Flat Earth Theory, in its many distinct forms. Can you recommend any particular ancient texts with FE cosmologies? I think it would be great if we could work on some kind of master topic (similar to the FAQ) outlining and sourcing such cosmological models.
I absolutely concur.
For starters, as references the first which come to mind are a highly biased but informative late nineteenth century two volume work by a skull and Bones member (which is online) entitled
'The History of the Warfare Between Science and Theology Within Christendom'
By A.E. Waite
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/White/Among other chapters, especially relevant are his chapters on the "Form of the Earth" and the "Delineation of the Earth"
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/White/geography/form.htmlhttp://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/White/geography/delineation.htmlI have read that Waite came across this voluminous amount of detailed information not primarily due to his own research but because of his membership or affiliation to a nineteenth century secret society known as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor or one of its front organizations it was deliberately supplied to him in order to present all these facts in a format with an ardently anti-Christian bias. Unfortunately, there may extensive references in the footnotes which are not included in the online edition. Anyway, it has a lot of information on ancient flat earth beliefs worldwide - probably more than any book in english until the fairly recent publication of a four volume work by the University of Chicago Press entitled:
'The History of Cartography, Volume 1:
Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean'
Edited by J. B. Harley
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=3620863http://books.google.com/books?id=uJaP4i7-_MIC&dq=the+history+of+cartography+harley&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=lTG5S-jpApXs9QTIicnqAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false'The History of Cartography, Volume 2 Book 1
Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies'
Edited By J. B. Harley
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=3625863http://books.google.com/books?id=ocoV2iI4vcoC&pg=PP1&dq=the+history+of+cartography+harley&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false'The History of Cartography, Volume 2 book 2
Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies'
Edited By J. B. Harley
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=3617125'The History of Cartography Volume 2 Book 3
Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies'
Edited by J. B. Harley
http://www.geography.wisc.edu/histcart/series.html#v2b3http://books.google.com/books?id=k_NoubO0RiYC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=the+history+of+cartography+harley&source=bl&ots=LVR4lWOiXn&sig=MLrXTVNJxViGm0NsXsS5XCtB8LI&hl=en&ei=lTG5S-jpApXs9QTIicnqAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=the%20history%20of%20cartography%20harley&f=falseI bought these at lower prices shortly after they first appeared, but they are presently with most of my library at my godfather's house in Greece, but they seem to have superceeded Waite's significant two volume work. These four volumes are excellent, fully illustrated with pictures of flat earth cosmologies in India and elsewhere, et cetera.
When I get time, I will try to post some of this kind of information using the old Lord Byron files as a starting point.