<P> Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe . Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world--Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south, and America in the west . This division fit the Renaissance sensibilities of the time, which also divided the world into four seasons, four classical elements, four cardinal directions, four classical virtues, etc . </P> <P> The four parts of the world or the four corners of the world refers to the Americas (the "west"), Europe (the "north"), Asia (the "east"), and Africa (the "south"). </P> <P> Before the discovery of the New World a commonplace of classical and medieval geography had been the "three parts" in which, from Mediterranean and European perspectives, the world was divided: Europe, Asia and Africa . As Laurent de Premierfait, the pre-eminent French translator of Latin literature in the early fifteenth century, informed his readers: </P> <P> Asia is one of the three parts of the world, which the authors divide in Asia, Africa and Europe . Asia extends towards the Orient as far as the rising sun ("devers le souleil levant"), towards the south ("midi") it ends at the great sea, towards the occident it ends at our sea, and towards the north ("septentrion") it ends in the Maeotian marshes and the river named Thanaus . </P>

What section of the outline is represented by a. continents of the world