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description: A Wheel of Memory: The Hereford Mappamundi on CD-ROM enables users to explore one of the most fascinating medieval documents known. The Hereford Mappamundi is a late thirteenth century world map approximately five feet in diameter. The only extant, large-scale medieval map of this type, it provides a paradigm for understanding the medieval world view. Its more than one thousand texts and images present a panoramic view of the intellectual and conceptual framework of the Middle Ages. Covering both religious and secular material, they include descriptions of geographical subjects, monuments, animals, races, biblical sites and incidents, legendary material, historical information, and more.The CD-ROM presentation enables the modern viewer to process the thousands of bits of information contained in the map in ways not dissimilar to the Middle Ages, when viewers approached the map differently depending on their literacy, education, and background. But multimedia technology also gives today's viewers access to additional material; for instance, the map's pictures and inscriptions are linked to textual and artistic sources, providing avenues of inquiry across disciplines. A Wheel of Memory will be attractive to a broad spectrum of viewers, from the nonspecialist interested in the Middle Ages to teachers and students of medieval history, art, and geography.Naomi Reed Kline is professor of art, Plymouth State College in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
title: A Wheel of Memory: The Hereford Mappamundi
titlecomplete: A Wheel of Memory: The Hereford Mappamundi
publisher: University of Michigan Press