BBC - A History of the World - Object : Mappa Mundi Show image caption Drawn a single sheet of vellum, the Mappa Mundi reflects the medieval church with Jerusalem at the centre of the worldThe Hereford Mappa Mundi is an outstanding treasure of the medieval world recording how thirteenth-century scholars interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms. It bears the name of its author 'Richard of Haldingham or Lafford' (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire) and was created around 1300. Drawn on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin) measuring 1.58 x 1.33 meters, it tapers towards the top with a rounded apex. The geographical material of the map is contained within a circle measuring 52" in diameter and reflects the thinking of the medieval church with Jerusalem at the centre of the world.

Superimposed onto the continents are around 500 drawings of the history of humankind and the marvels of the natural world, including some 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world and 8 pictures from classical mythology. Drawn a single sheet of vellum, the Mappa Mundi reflects the medieval church with Jerusalem at the centre of the world The Hereford Mappa Mundi The Hereford Mappa Mundi By Ben Johnson | Comments The Mappa Mundi is housed in Hereford Cathedral and is one of Britain’s finest medieval treasures. But what is a Mappa Mundi? Great world maps were an English speciality in the Middle Ages and were drawn on cloth, walls or animal skin. Only the Hereford World Map – Mappa Mundi – has survived complete and is believed to be the world’s largest medieval map. These large maps were drawn in great detail but could only be read by people who spoke Norman French, the language of the literate secular elite.

The mappae mundi interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms, and included Biblical illustrations as well as portrayals of Classical learning and legend. As pictorial descriptions of the outside world, these impressive maps were also educational; they were used for teaching natural history and classical legends, and reinforcing religious beliefs. There is little doubt that the map was created in Lincoln as the depiction of Lincoln Cathedral on the map is so true to life. Lincoln was already a renowned centre of learning in the 13th century: its library had contained a world map and the chronicler and map-maker Gerald of Wales had lived there prior to his death in 1223. The map is drawn on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin) and measures 64 inches by 52 inches, tapering towards the top. It is generally believed that the map was created in the late 1290s and written in English Gothic script by one person alone. So who made the Hereford Mappa Mundi? The map is attributed to one ‘Richard of Haldringham or Lafford’ (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire) who was also known as Richard de Bello.

Whilst the map was drawn in Lincoln, it was almost certainly in Hereford by 1330. It is very probable that the Hereford map was largely copied from another, older map. The Roman Emperor Augustus appears on the Mappa Mundi and it is known that he charged his son-in-law Agrippa with the creation of a world map that emphasized the extent of the Roman Empire in the first century A.D. Agrippa’s lost map, along with later ones of the Roman Empire, are likely to form the basis of the Hereford map, along with medieval additions, illustrations and Christian symbolism. East is at the top of the map, South is on the right, West is at the bottom with North on the left. At the centre of the Mappa Mundi is Jerusalem, the centre of the Christian world. The continents are illustrated with drawings of cities and towns, classical mythology (the Minotaur is depicted on the map), Biblical events, plants, animals (including camels, elephants and lions), birds (including parrots and a phoenix) and people. The top of the map shows Christ sitting at the Day of Judgement, flanked by angels. The Mappa Mundi can be seen at Hereford Cathedral.

The cathedral dates from Saxon times and is dedicated to the martyred King Ethelbert, killed on the orders of King Offa – his magnificent gilded and painted shrine is situated in the retro-choir, near to the Lady Chapel. It tells the story of the Saxon saint in 12 episodes. Hereford Cathedral is also home to another great medieval treasure, the Chained Library which holds 229 medieval manuscripts. The cathedral's earliest and most important book is the eighth-century Hereford Gospels. Tweet If you enjoyed this article, you might also like... The Origins of the Magna Carta - The Magna Carta is seen as one of the most influential legal documents in British history, described by Lord Denning as “the greatest constitutional document of all time." However, its original conception was not nearly as successful ... Hereford Cathedral - This beautiful building is the home of ... The King James Bible - Celebrated as one of the most significant texts of all time ... Herefordshire Cider Trail - Follow the Herefordshire cider route and visit local cider farms, producers and outlets. Learn how cider is made, then taste it and purchase it direct ...

Advertising Mappa Mundi Exploration | Mappa Mundi Hereford Camp of Alexander the Great Columns of Hercules According to myth, the Columns of Hercules were located at the Strait of Gibraltar and marked the western extreme of the inhabited world. Tradition has it that the words ‘nothing further beyond’ were written on the pillars. Roman versions of the myth tell how Hercules, with his superhuman strength, crashed through Mount Atlas to reach the Garden of Hesperides, joining the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. The split rock became known as the Columns of Hercules. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Golden Fleece The myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece is a tale of quest, adventure and superhuman heroism. Jason and his Argonauts sailed westwards from Greece in their ship the Argo. Their quest was to find and bring back the magical fleece of the Golden Ram. Along the way Jason encountered both love and duplicity, but finally brought the fleece back to Greece. On our map the Golden Fleece is shown on the coast of the Black Sea. It is possible that the legend has a connection with the colonisation of the Black Sea coast. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop...

Labyrinth In Greek mythology the Cretan labyrinth was built by Daedalus to contain the Minotaur, a bull-headed, man-eating monster. The myth tells how King Minos pledged to appease the Minotaur’s voracious appetite by regular offerings of seven young men and women, but Theseus entered the labyrinth and heroically slayed the monster. In the Middle Ages, many cathedrals had a labyrinth set out in the floor paving. Pilgrims would walk the labyrinth as a spiritual pilgrimage, and it is likely that this sort of labyrinth would have been known to medieval viewers of the map. Babylon and the Tower of Babel Christ in Majesty Christ sits enthroned in majesty above the world, as though surveying all of creation. He holds up his hands to show the wounds of the crucifixion, and the spear wound in his side is also visible. On his right, the saved rise up out of their coffins and enter the gates of heaven. On his left, the damned are stripped bare, chained together and dragged towards the gates of hell, symbolised by the opened mouth of a great beast. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop...

Eden The earthly paradise, Eden, is represented by a circular island at the eastern extreme of the world (the top). The drawing on the map shows an Eden that is inaccessible to humanity. It is surrounded by a ring of fire, separated from the land masses by water, walled and battlemented, and its gates are firmly closed. Within the wall, Eve holds out her hand to take the fruit of the tree of knowledge from a demon-headed serpent who lurks in the branches of the tree. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Noah’s Ark The Bible tells how, angry with the wickedness of humanity, God decided to cause a great flood to wipe out mankind. The only man untainted by wickedness and worthy of saving was Noah. So God asked Noah to build a great ship (the ark) to save the animals of the world and his own family. Inside the drawing of the ark we can see a number of beasts and three people, including a bearded man who could be Noah. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... The Red Sea and the Exodus On the map there is a clear pathway through the Red Sea. This marks the route of the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and towards the ‘Promised Land’.

If you follow the meanderings of this route, you’ll see where the Israelites got lost in the desert and then, finally, found their way to the ‘Promised Land’. For medieval Chistians, this story spoke of passing through the water of Baptism, undertaking the journey and wanderings of life, and then, finally, finding salvation. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Babylon and the Tower of Babel The imposing city of Babylon, with its five elaborate storeys, is the largest structure on the map. The Bible gives details about Babylon’s impressive size and construction, and similar details appear in the text on our map. As well as representing the city of Babylon, the topmost tower of the drawing on the map is labelled ‘Tower of Babel’. The story of the Tower of Babel tells how, in their arrogance, people sought to build a city with a tower so high that it would reach the sky, but God punished this overreaching pride, causing humanity to speak in different languages. Unicorn Camel The map’s camel is a bactrian, with two humps.

He stands to the south of the Memarnau mountains, East of the Amu Darya river, and seems to be very pleased with himself! The text on the map reads: ‘Bactria has extremely strong camels that never wear out their feet’. Medieval books of beasts (bestiaries) often included an illustration of a camel and a description of its habits, saying things like: ‘they hate horses and only drink muddy water’ or ‘they can live for a hundred years’. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Lynx On our map, the lynx prowls along the southern coast of the Black Sea looking backwards over its shoulder. Like many medieval illustrations of lynxes, it urinates a precious stone. On the map, the stone is reported to be black, but some medieval books of beasts (bestiaries) say that this stone is ‘flame coloured and similar to a carbuncle’. When the map was made, as now, lynxes were understood to have very keen eyesight. The map says: ‘The Lynx sees through walls and urinates a black stone.’ Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Elephant Like many other elephants in medieval illustrations, this one has a tower.

Medieval books of beasts (bestiaries) describe how Indian and Persian soldiers constructed wooden towers on the backs of elephants to use as fighting platforms. The map’s elephant is drawn with long tusks, but the text on the map seems to confuse tusks and teeth, saying that the elephant’s ‘teeth are believed to be ivory’. Some bestiaries claim that elephants can live for 300 years and are afraid of mice. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Unicorn In medieval books of beasts (bestiaries), the unicorn is often described as a small but fierce creature that can fight elephants. Despite this ferocity, though, bestiaries tell how the unicorn could be overcome by an innocent maiden, who could calm his wildness so that he laid his head in her lap and became harmless. Some bestiaries link the unicorn to Christ. On our map the unicorn is called a monoceros. Cynocephali Blemmyes In the Middle Ages there were many travellers’ tales telling of Blemmyes. The Blemmyes were reported to be a war-like race with no head, but with their facial features in their chest.

Alexander the Great was thought to have encountered Blemmyes in his campaigns, and they are even mentioned in Shakespeare’s Othello. One medieval writer says they are ‘like lawyers, who speak through their bellies’! On our map, a Blemmye holding a spear and a shield is located in Africa. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Sciapods In the Middle Ages, stories circulated about Sciapods or Monoculi. Sciapods were reported to be a race of people with one very large foot that they used to shield themselves from the sun. Stories also told how these strange people moved extremely quickly on their one leg. On our map there are two Sciapods, one in India, and another on the extreme southern edge of the inhabited world. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Troglodites Troglodites, or cave-dwellers, often featured in medieval illustrations. On the map, four Troglodites are drawn in Africa. Three of them are illustrated inside caves (one is eating a snake), while the fourth, a bearded man, appears to be wearing only a helmet. He rides a goat-like beast.

The text on the map says that Troglodites are ‘very swift; they live in caves, eat snakes and catch wild animals by jumping on them.’ Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Cynocephali (Dog-heads) Stories about men with the heads of dogs and barking voices are many and varied, and go back to classical antiquity. Some medieval travellers and writers describe the Cynocephali as ‘barbarians’, who can be tender one minute, but agressive and uncontrolled the next. In one medieval legend from Wales, the Cynocephali can be interpreted as werewolfs. In some other legends, St Christopher is reported to be a giant with a head like a dog. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Rome Rome is very large on the map, and clearly important. It is where St Peter and St Paul were martyred. St Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, and popes who came after him were seen as his successors. In the Middle Ages, Rome was central to the spread of western Christianity. The text on the map reads: ‘Rome, head of the world, holds the bridle of the spherical earth.’ Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop...

Paris With its multiple towers and pinnacles, Paris is the largest and grandest structure in Europe. Its significance can perhaps be explained by its medieval university’s importance for the study of philosophy and theology. Many of the principal medieval theologians and religious leaders worked and studied in Paris, including St Thomas Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford 1275–1282. Sadly, at some time in the past, the area around Paris on the map has been badly scratched. Paris Scratches Tensions in Vellum The map is drawn on a large sheet of vellum: a single calfskin, about 1.5 m high, 1.3 m wide and 0.7 mm thick. Vellum has a hair side (the outside when on the animal) and a flesh side (the inside) and is prone to cockle, because the hair side is naturally tauter than the flesh side. The Hereford Mappa Mundi is drawn on the flesh side of the skin, which explains why its undulations tend to balloon outwards. Here the undulations caused by this innate tension are clearly visible. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop...

Vellum Preparation Vellum (commonly also called parchment) is made from the skin of an animal, usually a calf, sheep or goat, but other skins, such as deer, were used in the Middle Ages. The process of making vellum is long and painstaking. The skin is washed, soaked in a solution of lime and water, scraped to remove the hair and flesh, then stretched whilst wet and pared with a crescent-shaped blade called a lunellum, before being allowed to dry and shrink; the paring process is repeated several times. Here the resulting clean, smooth and durable surface can be clearly seen. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Vascular Systems in Vellum In the region of the map where Scotland appears, traces of the veins of the animal from which the skin was removed to manufacture the vellum can be clearly seen: a reminder that we are looking at the prepared skin of a beast. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Central Perforation This tiny hole, directly in the centre of Jerusalem, marks the centre of the circumferences both of Jerusalem itself and of the whole world. It was made by a tool for drawing circles, such as a compass. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop...

Depth Changes from Corrosion All over the map, the pigments that have been used to colour it can be seen to be lying proud on the surface of the vellum, unlike dyes, which would have penetrated it. Without analysis using modern techniques such as Ramon spectroscopy, it is impossible to know precisely which pigments were used, but they are likely to have included minerals such as lapis lazuli or azurite (blue), or compounds such as vermillion (red). The seas would have originally been green, but the copper-based pigment has darkened and corroded, leaving areas within them standing proud. Here Sodom and Gomorrah appear to rise out of the Dead Sea. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Ink in Relief The writing, made in a good quality ink, still very black, can be seen to be standing proud of the surface. Evidence that the drawing was done first and the text added later is shown in areas like this, where the text has clearly been fitted around the drawing, in this case of a mythological beast called a yale. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Patch Repairs The 3D scan shows up clearly the many repairs made to the map over the centuries.

Here a patch of parchment has been pasted under a hole which may originally have been a flaw in the vellum caused by an insect bite to the animal when alive. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Gilded Capitals Here the letter 'O' from the word 'Europa' (Europe - but actually placed over Africa) can be seen to be really three-dimensional. The letter is a versal, where the outline is drawn with a pen and then filled in. In this case the filling in is a built up base of sticky gesso on which gold leaf has been laid and then burnished. Plan Your Visit... Visit the Shop... Hereford Erased Here, the image and text for Hereford can be seen to have been completely flattened, so that they hardly show up on the 3D scan, although traces of ink and pigment are still just visible. This is probably owing to the tens of thousands of visitors who pointed it out in the centuries before the map was covered by glass. The Dragon Chronicles | The Hereford Mappa Mundi | Nature | PBS The Hereford Mappa Mundi Explore more from this episode More Click to view the full map.

In medieval times, the idea that flying, fire-spitting dragons existed was considered entirely plausible. The world was immense and unknown. Many people believed that a sea of darkness encircled the chartered lands. Dragons leapt across the page in the Bible, Beowulf, and Chaucer. And medieval cartographers occasionally illustrated blank spaces with winged serpents and dragons. On the Hereford Mappa Mundi (World Map) in England, several dragon-like creatures appear within its borders. Rom Whitaker, on his quest to find today’s real-life dragons, uses the Hereford Mappa Mundi, the largest medieval map in existence, as a starting point for his journey. He travels to the 1,000-year-old Hereford Cathedral, where the antique vellum the map now hangs. About five feet long and four and a half feet wide, it is encased under thick, security-wired glass — and for good reason: the Hereford Mappa Mundi is one of the most valuable maps in the world. Historians estimate it was drawn around 1290 A.D.

with a mineral-based black ink, as well as paints made from vegetable dye, which have now dulled to a warm sepia hue. Overall, the map is covered in some 500 drawings of the history of humankind and marvels of the natural world: 420 cities and towns; 15 biblical events; 33 plants, animals, birds, and strange creatures; 32 images of the peoples of the world; and 8 pictures from classical mythology. In the book Mappa Mundi: The Hereford World Map, by P.D.A. Harvey, a glossary is given for the map’s varied creatures and mythical beasts. It writes that dragons were found in India, where they defended the golden mountains. The description continues: “Mythical fire-breathing creature with wings, scales and claws; malevolent in west, benevolent in east.” Other weird creatures the Mappa Mundi portrays include the bonnacon in Asia, which is drawn moving toward the left but looking back over its shoulder at its own explosion of diarrhea, which, according to the adjacent legend, sprayed a distance of three acres and scalded anything it hit.

In Egypt, there is a crocodile and a red salamander with wings, and in Asia, there is a griffin, which resembles a winged Welsh dragon. Christopher de Hamel, a leading authority on medieval manuscripts, has said the Mappa Mundi “is without parallel the most important and most celebrated medieval map in any form, the most remarkable illustrated English manuscript of any kind, and certainly the greatest extant thirteenth-century pictorial manuscript.” The creator of the Hereford Mappa Mundi did not work to create an accurate geographical representation, as the creators of maps do today, but rather to glorify the Christian view of the world. As Peter Barber writes in The Map Book, “The Hereford World Map proclaims the insignificance of man and his achievements in face of the divine and the eternal.” He later continues, At the top one sees the Last Judgment, with the saved to the left and the damned to the right, and a bare-breasted Virgin pleading for mankind. At the bottom right a mounted huntsman looks wistfully back at the earthly world but his pace urges him to move on.

The map of the world, like a colossal wheel of fortune, is held down by four thongs containing letters which together spell our ‘MORS’, or death. The map itself has Jerusalem, surmounted by a depiction of the crucifixion, at the center. Among map historians, the Hereford map is known as a “T and O map,” called such because it looked like a T incised with an O. The T is the Mediterranean, dividing the three continents Asia, Europe, and Africa. The O is the encircling ocean, or ‘Sea of Darkness,’ beyond which lay an uncharted realm that people could only imagine. Dragons on maps were one of the most significant symbols of what might exist in unknown, far-away lands. The phrase, “Here be dragons,” comes from its use on the Lenox Globe, made in 1500, where it is written in Latin—“HC SVNT DRACONES”—off the east coast of Asia, and denotes what was thought to be a dangerous or unexplored territory. Whitaker journeys from the Hereford Mappa Mundi to many places that very few medieval Europeans ever went.

Rather, they could only see these places on a map (if they were even that privileged), along with a drawing of a dragon, and contemplate them with wonder, and perhaps, fear. Public domain photograph Making a Mappamundi: The Hereford Map Scott D. Westrem Chart 1. Principal Sources and Analogues for Information on the Hereford Map (listed chronologically) ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The Bible; quoted and cited in one legend, underlies some 20 others ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Pliny, Naturalis historia (a.d. 79 [unfinished]); definitive source for 12 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Antonini Augusti itineraria provinciarum et maritimum [The Antonine Itinerary] (c. 211-217, with later revisions); likely source for 100-150 toponyms ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium (c. 230/240); definitive source for 53 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ St.

Jerome, De situ et nominibus locorum hebraicorum liber (390); definitive source for 1 legend, likely source for many others ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Julius Honorius, Cosmographia Iulii Caesaris (c.ï¿½ 312/400); definitive source for 6 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (c. 410/439); definitive source for 6 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Paulus Orosius, Historiarum adversum paganos libri vii (c.

418); definitive source for 6 legends; likely source for at least 33 others ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Isidore of Seville, De natura rerum (612-613); definitive source for 11 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri xx (636 [unfinished]); definitive source for 35 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Aethicus Ister, The Cosmography (late 7th/early 8th century); definitive source (much revised and abstracted) for 16 legends ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Others:ï¿½ Adamnan, De locis sanctis (c. 700 [1 legend]); Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardum (late 8th century [1 legend]); Hugh of St. Victor, Descriptio mappe mundi (c. 1130 [2 legends, perhaps 3 others]); the French translation of The Letter of Prester John (c.

1200 [2 legends]) ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Roger of Howden (?), Expositio mappe mundi (c. 1190); 437 (of 1,091) legends appear verbatim or nearly so in this work, with another 50 indirect matches; of 484 itemized data-bits in EMM, 401 are found verbatim or nearly so on the Map.ï¿½ The two known manuscript copies are fragmentary; internal references suggest that the original version contained sections on Iberia, the British Isles, and islands in the Black and Mediterranean Seas, which are not covered in the surviving text. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The range of information is also impressive.ï¿½ Chart 2 presents an overview of the various kinds of data on the Map.ï¿½ This chart is based on my division of the terrestrial landmass on the Map into five basic units; in addition,ï¿½ 31 legends are found in the peripheral areas of the vellum outside the circle of the earth (sectional divisions are highlighted on Fig.

2).ï¿½ In this division Asia occupies the top half, Europe the lower-left quadrant, and Africa the lower-right quadrant; separate categories exist for the Euxineï¿½or Black Seaï¿½and Mediterranean islands, spread across the middle of the Map and forming a kind of radius bar in the lower half, and for a corridor of monstrous people or humanoids along the right edge of the Map, but not figured specifically as Africans.11 ï¿½ The numbers record how many legends have a particular cartographical topic as their principal subject.ï¿½ A few legends combine topics, identifying a river or a kingdom, for example, that is more directly related to a theological or historical matter.ï¿½ In such cases, the geographical feature is regarded as secondary, and it is included in the number recorded between parentheses on the second line in each box.12 ï¿½ Percentages run across along every row (for categories) except for the right-most column, in which they run vertically (for overall totals). Fig. 2.

Sectional divisions of the earth employed on Chart 2 (and in Westrem, The Hereford Map.) ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The chart may enable us to see the world in a more analogous way to that in which its makers envisioned it.ï¿½ Asia is notable for its ethnic groups and animals; it is the arena for almost all the scenes of religiousï¿½and most of those of historicalï¿½consequence.ï¿½ Europe, by contrast, is largely reduced to physical geography:ï¿½ it has as many kingdoms and provinces as vast Asia, and almost twice as many cities (more than half the cities in the world, and three-fifths of its rivers, are found in Europe, reflecting its commercial and civic character).ï¿½ Most of the legends in Africa identify regions or towns; the lengthiest legends are measurements of various distances and come from passages in ancient sources that debate whether or not Africa was large enough to be thought one of the earthï¿½s principal ï¿½parts.ï¿½ï¿½ Islands are by and large named with no further attention to them, and the corridor of strange humans, unsurprisingly, is largely a collection

 of (pseudo-)ethnographic information.ï¿½ Scholars who consider the Hereford Map a gigantic Bible storyï¿½or even a lesson in Classical historyï¿½however, should note the very small percentage of legends that take these subjects as their principal themes.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The likelihood that a cartographerï¿½or even a team of mapmakersï¿½sat with a collection of ten or fifteen manuscripts around them and recorded various passages on a huge piece of calf skin laid before them has seemed an unrealistic way to imagine the assembly of data that come from so many sources and range so widely in content as we see on the Hereford Map.ï¿½ Historians of cartography have conjectured that surviving and lost maps of this kind must have been copied from each other or some, probably French, prototype, although how and in what format this prototype circulated has been uncertain because no one has ever located a ï¿½smoking gun.ï¿½ï¿½ Aware that navigational charts with extremely ï¿½accurateï¿½ representations of the east Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Black Sea coastlines were being drawn from at least the late 1100s, at the same time that mappaemundi were representing a more schematized earth, they have also taken it somewhat for granted that these two images of geographical reality came from differentï¿½indeed, in the estimation of some, intellectually quite opposedï¿½

circles.13 ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Just what kind of source they may have used has been detected by Patrick Gautier Dalchï¿½, one of the most brilliant and innovative historians of medieval culture in the world today, who has found two manuscript copies of a text entitled Expositio mappe mundi (hereafter referred to as ï¿½EMMï¿½).14 ï¿½ If it is not the recipe for making a mappamundi, EMM is certainly a careful record of the content of an existing one (so careful, in fact, that even if it was originally composed only as a descriptio, it could have been used to produce another).ï¿½ The text is in essence a collection of 484 data items, which range from detailed reports about Asian locations to simple toponyms listed according to their location along coastlines or rivers.ï¿½ (The text as we have it today breaks off mid-word in both manuscripts, and the original is likely to have had around 200 additional itemized names.)ï¿½ That cartographers did indeed employ EMM (or a text very like it) is proved

 by the inscriptions on the Hereford Map, where more than 400 of these 484 existing data items appear verbatim or nearly so.15 ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ EMM is a spatially specific, instructive manual about the appearance of a world map; its language approaches that of a rudimentary science, as the citations recorded on Charts 3 and 4 indicate.ï¿½ A map ï¿½legendï¿½ is a titulus; many toponyms are noted to be ï¿½oppositeï¿½ (contra) others; some are specifically noted to ï¿½spanï¿½ rivers, appear ï¿½to the south ofï¿½ something else, or be ï¿½above,ï¿½ ï¿½after,ï¿½ or ï¿½belowï¿½ a different city, mountain, or island.ï¿½ Some territories are ï¿½demarcatedï¿½ (distinguuntur) by lines.ï¿½ A design ï¿½depictedï¿½ (pingitur) near a legend is briefly, exactly described.ï¿½

 Regions of the earth are divided into sections and treated separately.ï¿½ Thus, the writer observes that the Danube has sixty tributaries, ï¿½of which we shall place twelve on the mapï¿½; each of the dozen is identified, working from west to east (source to mouth), with key adjacent cities located, usually along one (or at a confluence) of the rivers.16 ï¿½ This locational and imagistic exactitude is evident in the passages quoted in Chart 3, in the left column, in which the author of EMM describes precisely the placement of six islands along the upper-left (northeast) rim of the earth.ï¿½ A comparison of the text of, and instructions for layout in, EMM with the legends and design of the Hereford Map on Fig.

3 reveals their exact correspondence.17 Fig. 3. The upper-left corner of the Hereford Map, showing north and east Asia (compare to the contents on Chart 3). Along the edge of the earth, from lower-left to upper right, are the "islands" with the evil offspring of Cain (walled off from the rest of civilization by Alexander the Great [ï¿½141]), "enormous Albatia (ï¿½89), the Phanesii with the huge ears (ï¿½880, the twin Eones islands (ï¿½35-36, described in ï¿½39), and the Hippopodes (ï¿½37).

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The places described here are in the northeast, where the writer of EMM in effect tells the mapmaker to begin production.ï¿½ Here a walled-up population awaits the call of Antichrist, islanders live off of bird eggs, and a race of people use their gargantuan ears like overcoats.ï¿½ All this may confirm the opinion of some readers of medieval geographies and maps that they are expressions of superstition, naï¿½vete, and gullibility.ï¿½ One century ago, the prominent English historian C. Raymond Beazley disdained to include a discussion of the Hereford Map into his nearly 2,000-page Dawn of Modern Geography, calling it a ï¿½monstrosity of complete futility.ï¿½18 ï¿½ Chart 3 and its corresponding Map section display what was for him a basis for that conclusion.ï¿½ But the data assembled on Chart 2 suggest that the Hereford Mapï¿½and an analogue like EMMï¿½are much more sophisticated.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ They are so for at least three reasons.ï¿½ In order to appreciate the fuller picture of the relationship between EMM and the Hereford Map, one may wish to take a brief look at their discrepancies.ï¿½ As has already been noted, at least 80% of the manuscript text re-appears essentially verbatim on the Map, whereas only about 40% of the Mapï¿½s content derives from the EMM.ï¿½ A considerable portion of this difference would most probably be made up if we had access to the original version of EMM, which almost certainly included another 200 entries for place-names in western Europe and the Mediterranean.19 ï¿½ EMM and the Hereford Map correspond most consistently along seacoasts:ï¿½ except in Europe (where rivers and adjacent cities are exactly described), internal land areas are largely missing from EMM, which includes no mention of a region, city, mountain, or river essentially between the Indus and the Jordan.ï¿½ Africa south of the Mediterranean coast is unknown as well.ï¿½ On the Hereford Map, these areas are home to a variety

 of animals and humans.ï¿½ Quite a few of these are peculiar in shape or behavior (like the huge-eared Phanesii and the ruthless kin of Cain noted in Chart 3), and they are often located near the edges of the terrestrial landmass.ï¿½ This is as true of Europe as of other regions:ï¿½ Sweden is evidently inhabited by monkey-people (it is labelled ï¿½Simeaï¿½ and its population is represented by a gorilla-like creature seated on the ground).ï¿½ Rather than ascribe this to subconscious marginalization of strange peopleï¿½the psychological spin some scholars have put on this spatial displayï¿½or to ï¿½medieval ignorance,ï¿½ we may do better to look for an explanation in science.20 ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ According to medieval zonal theory, the spherical earth was divided into three uninhabitable and two mutually inaccessible but habitable ï¿½bandsï¿½ of territory; this promoted a medical understanding of elemental and bodily ï¿½humorsï¿½ that led to a kind of meteorological determinism.ï¿½ As one approached the edges

 of the earthï¿½s landmass and encountered increasing cold and aridity or heat and moisture, one inevitably came across people who looked or behaved in extreme ways.ï¿½ The idea is discussed especially in geographies written during the 1200s, such as Thomas of Cantimprï¿½s Liber de natura rerum (1237/1240).ï¿½ A growing interest in the effect of climate on human and animal populations during the thirteenth century may explain some gaps in EMM, which was probably written during the previous century.21 ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Comparing EMM to the Hereford Mapï¿½this time noting striking parallelsï¿½may alert us to a second kind of sophistication.ï¿½ What quite irritated Beazley and other historians of cartography about mappaemundi was their general lack of scale:ï¿½ space is not apportioned on the vellum surface in a fashion relatively consistent with space in the ï¿½realï¿½ world.ï¿½ This is most apparent in the delineation of coastlines, made even more problematic to the modern eye by placing

 the known landmass into a circular rather than a rectangular frame.ï¿½ (It is also evident in other ways:ï¿½ the Holy Land is half the size of all of Europe, perhaps a reflection of its historical importance to the Christian West, and thus its amplitude is moral rather than geographical.)ï¿½ Chart 4 (and the related Fig.

1), however, call attention to a remarkable degree of accuracy in the relationship of toponymsï¿½for cities, rivers, and mountainsï¿½both in EMM and in Hereford Map legends.ï¿½ On the Asia Minor littoral, for example, one passage in EMM links 39 place-names in a running series, 23 of which are found in Chart 4 (and visible, in almost exactly parallel order, on Fig. 1).22 ï¿½ Moreover, the parallel is ï¿½correct,ï¿½ reflecting the actual locations of these places in modern Turkey.ï¿½ This same accurate parallelism in strings of toponyms can be found along the coasts of Greece, Italy, and north Africa, as well as on the banks of most of the 89 rivers in Europe on the Hereford Map.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The third kind of sophistication requires a better understanding of the history of EMM as a text.ï¿½ In the introduction to his edition of it, Gautier Dalchï¿½ convincingly argues that although the two known manuscripts were copied in Germany during the mid-fifteenth centuryï¿½and thus EMM as we have it today post-dates the production of the Hereford Map by some 150 yearsï¿½the work itself was most likely composed in England, probably Yorkshire, in the later twelfth century, very likely based on an earlier prototype but much improved by the authorï¿½s personal experience and knowledge.ï¿½ That author was probably in the entourage of Richard I (Lionheart) on the Third Crusade (1188-1192), and he may have been Roger of Howden, the Yorkshire cleric and counselor who chronicled this event.ï¿½ Roger was, in any event, almost certainly responsible for the two other treatises bound together with EMM in both manuscripts, De viis maris and Liber nautarum, works of practical navigation from the late-twelfth century that were used

 in connection with sea charts.ï¿½ This is a stunning discovery because in this Gautier Dalchï¿½ demonstrates the falseness of the opposition traditionally thought to have existed between the makers of mappaemundi and navigational charts, an opposition usually cast as a stark division between naï¿½ve monks applying a Christian overlay to an outdated Greco-Roman model and savvy traders (merchants and/or pilots) laying the groundwork for ï¿½modernï¿½ cartography in innovative marine maps.ï¿½ The two different cartographical styles interested, and in some cases at least were evidently being produced by, the same individuals; in both cases, this occurred in a highly methodical way.ï¿½ Thus the only thing really monstrous about the Hereford Map, perhaps, is the way it and its making have been misunderstood and expected to conform to modern taste.

1ï¿½ï¿½ Citations from and references to the Hereford Map come from my study, The Hereford Map.ï¿½ A Transcription and Translation of the Legends with Commentary, History of the Representation of Space in Text and Image 1 (Turnhout:ï¿½ Brepols, 2001).ï¿½ Map legends (identified by the symbol ï¿½) are discussed individually in connection with related designs.ï¿½ The Mapï¿½s precise length (measuring along the animalï¿½s spine) is 1,587 millimeters; its width varies, being 1,292 millimeters at the base of the triangular head (near the top); 1,325 millimeters across the middle (in effect the depicted earthï¿½s diameter); and 1,335 millimeters across the bottom.ï¿½ It thus has a length of 5 feet 2 3/8 inches and ranges from around 4 feet 2 5/8 inches to 4 feet 4 inches across, with a ï¿½diameterï¿½ of 4 feet 3 11/16 inches.

ï¿½ The skin was trimmed on all sides, with the loss of some painted surface at the left extreme; around 50 millimeters (2 inches) of vellum has probably been cut away (Westrem, p.

xv, n. 1).ï¿½ On biblical evidence for Jerusalemï¿½s centrality in the earthï¿½s landmass, see Psalms 73 [74]: 12 and Ezekiel 5:5. 2ï¿½ï¿½ The most significant of these specific analyses links the horseman to Thomas of Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford (1275-1282), and his successful lawsuit regarding hunting rights against Earl Gilbert of Gloucester in 1277-1278; see Valerie I. J. Flint, ï¿½The Hereford Map:ï¿½ Its Author(s), Two Scenes and a Border,ï¿½ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser. 8 (1998), p.19-44.ï¿½ On other studies, see P. D. A. Harvey, Mappa Mundi: The Hereford World Map (Toronto:ï¿½ University of Toronto Press, 1996) and Westrem, The Hereford Map, p. xxi-xxv and nn.

18-28, as well as the commentary to ï¿½6-15 and the bibliography for secondary sources (p. lii-lvii). 3ï¿½ï¿½ Some scholarly studies treat as ï¿½conventionalï¿½ a map of the world placed in the context of a scene with Jesus Christ.ï¿½ In fact, such a juxtaposition is known from only five mappaemundi:ï¿½ the Hereford Map, the Ebstorf Map (see n. 4, below), the Psalter Map (London, British Library, MS Additional 28681, fol. 9r), the very fragmentary Duchy of Cornwall Map. (London, Duchy of Cornwall Office), and the Lambeth Map (London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 371, fol. 9v).ï¿½ All four date from between approximately 1240 and 1300.ï¿½ The only published notice of the Lambeth Map is in my essay ï¿½Geography and Travel,ï¿½ A Companion to Chaucer. Ed.

Peter Brown (Oxford:ï¿½ Blackwell Publishers, 2000), p. 195-217 (at p. 206-09 and Fig. 12.1). Other exemplars combining theological design and geography may of course be lost. 4ï¿½ï¿½ For bibliographical information on these and other (including lost) cartographical exemplars, see Westrem, The Hereford Map, p. xv-xvii and nn. 3-7. 5ï¿½ï¿½ On Flintï¿½s article, see n. 2, above.ï¿½ Barber and Harveyï¿½s edited volume of essays based on lectures delivered at Hereford Cathedral (27 June-1 July 1999), The Hereford Mappa Mundi:ï¿½ Proceedings of the Mappa Mundi Conference, 1999, is forthcoming from the British Library.ï¿½ On the Mapï¿½s origins, its frame, and usage, see Westrem, The Hereford Map, p. xix-xxv and nn.

12-30.ï¿½ The conservator Christopher Clarkson drew my attention to the gouge in the Mapï¿½s former frame. 6ï¿½ï¿½ My work on the Map has been much advanced by the great generosity of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford and the Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust; Canon John Tiller, Chancellor and Master of the Library; Joan Williams, Librarian; and (especially) Dominic Harbour, Education and Marketing Manager (formerly Curator or Keeper) at the Cathedral.ï¿½ I am grateful for the Dean and Chapterï¿½s permission to reprint here images of the Map made from transparencies produced in January 2001 by Gordon W. Taylor, MBE, LRPS, FIBMS.

7ï¿½ï¿½ Some details about the vellum come from a presentation (for Cathedral staff) on 10 January 2001 by Wim Visscher of William Cowley Parchment Works in England.ï¿½ The Map was intricately mounted to a wooden frame in 1948, and it has since been impossible to ascertain whether the Mapï¿½s thickness at the edges is constant and if there is any text or design on the reverse (hair) side.ï¿½ Parkes and Morgan presented a ï¿½technical surveyï¿½ of the Map at the Hereford Mappa Mundi Conference, and their findings (based on dated manuscripts and datable imagery from 1290s) are being published in the proceedings volume by Barber and Harvey (see n. 5, above).ï¿½ See also Westrem, The Hereford Map, p. xviii-xix and n. 10.

8ï¿½ï¿½ I am writing an article on the usage of a figure with concentric circles to represent a sphere before the landmark publication in 1435 of Leone Battista Albertiï¿½s De pictura, in which the technique of perspectival design was linked to a theory advocating painting as an imitation of reality (Filippo Brunelleschi had employed this technique in executing architectural views of Florence on two panels around 1420.ï¿½ A locus classicus in design terms for the medieval point of view is in Isidore of Sevilleï¿½s Etymologies, in a summary coverage of geometrical figures, the text of which is written in such a way as to require a diagrammatic representation (III.xii); many surviving manuscripts (which total in the hundreds) show an exact correspondence between the sketch of a sphere here (two concentric circles) and the outline of the world in a mappamundi often drawn near the beginning of Isidoreï¿½s discussion of geography (XIV.ii). 9ï¿½ï¿½ Flint, ï¿½The Hereford Map,ï¿½ p. 23 (see n. 2, above).

10ï¿½ï¿½ For bibliographical information for editions and translations of the source texts, see Westrem, The Hereford Map, p. xxviii-xxxvii and nn. 43-59. 11ï¿½ï¿½ More detailed analysis of these data can be found in my ï¿½Lessons from Legends on the Hereford Mappa Mundi,ï¿½ Hereford Mappa Mundi Conference proceedings volume being edited by Barber and Harvey (see n. 5, above).ï¿½ Treating islands separately from the earthï¿½s three ï¿½partsï¿½ follows the organizational style adopted by Isidore of Seville, Honorius Augustodunensis, and other medieval geographical authorities.

12ï¿½ï¿½ For example, in the Garden of Eden, at the top of the earthï¿½s circle, the Four Rivers of Paradise are identified as they are named in Genesis 2:11-14.ï¿½ These four legends (ï¿½66-69) are included among the 23 that relate principally to ï¿½Concepts/Ideas/Names Associated with Biblical/Christian Historyï¿½ in Asia; they are numbered among the seven secondary references to ï¿½Names of Riversï¿½ in Asia.ï¿½ Similarly three legends in Asia that identify regions visited or conquered by Alexander the Great (ï¿½62, 86, 115) are counted among the six ï¿½Concepts/Ideas/Names Associated with ï¿½Secularï¿½ Historyï¿½ in Asia and, secondarily, among the six ï¿½Names of Land Areas.ï¿½ 13ï¿½ï¿½ On the origins of mappaemundi, see G. R. Crone, The World Map by Richard of Haldingham in Hereford Cathedral, circa a.d.

1285. Reproductions of Early Manuscript Maps 3 (London:ï¿½ Royal Geographical Society, 1954), p. 16-17.ï¿½ On navigational charts and portolani dating to the later 1100s (one century earlier than has been generally thought), see Patrick Gautier Dalchï¿½. Carte marine et portulan au XIIe siï¿½cle:ï¿½ Le Liber de existencia riveriarum et forma maris nostri Mediterranei. Pise, circa 1200. Collection de lï¿½ï¿½cole franï¿½aise de Rome 203 (Rome:ï¿½ ï¿½cole franï¿½aise de Rome, 1995).

14ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½Dï¿½crire le monde et situer les lieux au XIIe siï¿½cle:ï¿½ Lï¿½Expositio mappe mundi et la gï¿½nï¿½alogie de la mappemonde de Hereford.ï¿½ Mï¿½langes de lï¿½ï¿½cole franï¿½aise de Rome.ï¿½ Antiquitï¿½-Moyen ï¿½ge 112[1]. Rome:ï¿½ ï¿½cole franï¿½aise de Rome, [forthcoming].ï¿½ The two known copies are Paris, Bibliothï¿½que Nationale de France, MS lat. 3123 (fols. 126r-131v); and Valenciennes, Bibliothï¿½que Municipale, MS 344 (fols. 52va-56va); both have a German provenance.ï¿½ I am most grateful to M.

Gautier Dalchï¿½ (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and ï¿½cole Pratique des Hautes ï¿½tudes [IVe Section], Paris) for permitting me to use his scrupulous edition of EMM, with a learned introduction, here and in my book. 15ï¿½ï¿½ Missing from EMM are Iberia, Britain, and islands in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, where 214 legends are found on the Hereford Map.ï¿½ That these areas were included in the original is strongly suggested by the occasional location of one place ï¿½oppositeï¿½ a city or island in these missing territories. 16ï¿½ï¿½ Danubius oritur ab orientali parte Reni fluminis sub quadam ecclesia, et progressus ad orientem, . . .

colligens hinc et inde flumina lx cum quibus se in Ponticum sinum vii ostiis precipitat.ï¿½ Quorum xii tantum in mappa ponimusï¿½; Gautier Dalchï¿½, ï¿½Dï¿½crire le mondeï¿½ (III.137). 17ï¿½ï¿½ So closely do the texts correspond that a phrase missing in EMM (I.21) owing to an eye-slip, or homoeoteleutou, can be restored based on the Mapï¿½s legend (ï¿½141), and a lexical absurdity on the Map (ï¿½39) can be corrected using the text of EMM (I.44).ï¿½ More details are found in these passages in Gautier Dalchï¿½, ï¿½Dï¿½crire le mondeï¿½; and Westrem, The Hereford Map.

18ï¿½ï¿½ According to Beazley, in his comprehensive work, ï¿½a bare allusion to the monstrosities of Hereford and Ebstorf should sufficeï¿½; The Dawn of Modern Geography (3 vols. London, 1897-1906; rpt. New York:ï¿½ Peter Smith, 1949), p. 3:528.ï¿½ In a similar vein the Mapï¿½s earliest serious students, the Anglican clerics W. L. Bevan and H. W. Phillott, wrote that it shows a ï¿½rejection of all that savoured of scientific geography, . . . servile adherence to antiquated geographical treatises, . . . anachronism, . . . and the sore lack of all critical and even grammatical accuracyï¿½; Mediï¿½val Geography.ï¿½ An Essay in Illustration of the Hereford Mappa Mundi (London and Hereford, 1873; rpt. Amsterdam: Meridian, 1969), p. 1-2. 19ï¿½ï¿½ See n.

15, above. 20ï¿½ï¿½ Other explanations for the presence of certain regions and peoples on a Map made in the late 1200s where no such detail is found in a text probably written in the late 1100s include Mongol incursions in central Europe during the mid-thirteenth century, vastly expanded trade (with Europeans dealing directly with east Asians, rather than being forced to operate through Arab intermediaries), a revival and re-direction of evangelistic interest, and the move to compile ï¿½scientificï¿½ encyclopedias (with the summa as an intellectual goal).ï¿½ Almost nowhere does a Map legend take a moral point of view about human peculiarity; one goes to some length to offer a sensible explanationï¿½known from no other source, including EMMï¿½for the Essedonian habit of eating oneï¿½e parents after they die (ï¿½212). 21ï¿½ï¿½ Zonal theory was first articulated by the Greeks probably by the fifth century B.C. (most likely by Parmenides [fl.

480 B.C.]); Macrobius discussed the issue in his famous Latin Commentary on the Dream of Scipio (c. A.D. 400), a text that was often attended during the Middle Ages by diagrammatic ï¿½mapsï¿½ illustrating the concept.ï¿½ See also David Woodward. ï¿½Medieval Mappaemundi.ï¿½ Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Ed. J. B. Harley and David Woodward, vol. 1 of The History of Cartography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 300.ï¿½ On Thomas of Cantimprï¿½, see Liber de natura rerum. Ed. Helmut Boese, (Berlin:ï¿½ de Gruyter, 1973) p. 5, 102-74 (Prol. and Book 4 [ï¿½De animalibus quadrupedibusï¿½]).

22ï¿½ï¿½ Gautier Dalchï¿½, ï¿½Dï¿½crire le monde,ï¿½ I.90-128.ï¿½ The passage begins ï¿½In Asya minori maritime ciuitates:ï¿½ contra Patmos Eraclea.ï¿½ï¿½ A new coastline section (in modern Syria and Lebanon) begins after ï¿½Laodiciaï¿½ with the words ï¿½Inde usque ad montem Libanum hee maritime ciuitatesï¿½ (I.129). 23ï¿½ï¿½ The ï¿½standardï¿½ Latin forms of these place-names and the modern English equivalents are those recorded in the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, ed. Richard J. A.

Talbert (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), which I employ throughout my book, but with the caution that in dealing with the manuscript culture of medieval Europe, it is misleading and anachronistic to speak of ï¿½standardï¿½ or ï¿½correctï¿½ spellings, especially of geographical words.

Question: On which material is the Hereford Mappa Mundi drawn?
Answer: VELLUM