-Europeans of course knew about India, China and maybe Japan but how much? Did they know of a distant archipelago off the coast of Asia?
-what was believed to be beyond the Sahara/Atlantic?
-did people really believe in sea monsters, winged men and dragons as some maps may have or were these due to cartographers making the map pretty?
Thank you in advance for answering any of these.
Europeans throughout the Middle Ages were quite aware the world was spherical. I've written about this before in a few answers, of which this one is likely most pertinent. Essentially, although maps differed, the Indies (Indonesia) were conceived of as extending much further east than they do. Japan was believed to be an island on the equator. And the width of Eurasia as well as the overall circumference of the earth were in dispute.