Hey, But Didn't They Think the Earth Was Flat?

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"Tutte le stelle già dell' altro polo
Vedea la notte, e il nostro tanto basso
Che non surgeva fuor del marin suolo." -- Dante, La Divina Commedia, Canto XXVI  

So, in the early 1300s, Dante not only knew the earth was a sphere, he also realized that this meant that someone sailing south would see new stars, and the the North Pole Star would become lower and lower in the sky.

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