| Fig. 10.—Map illustrating Sallust’s Bellum jugurthinum (11th century, Leipzig). |
The outlines of several medieval maps resemble each other to such an extent that there can be no doubt that they are derived from the same original source. This source by some authors is assumed to have been the official map of the Roman Empire, but if we compare the crude outline given to the Mediterranean with the more correct delineation of Ptolemy, who was certainly in a position to avail himself of these official sources, such an assumption is untenable. The earliest delineation of the description has already been referred to as the Anglo-Saxon map of the world. Next in the order of age, follows the oval map which Henry, canon of Mayence Cathedral, dedicated to Mathilda, consort of the emperor Henry V. (1110). Of far greater importance is the map seen in Hereford Cathedral. It is the work of Richard of Haldingham, and has a diameter of 134 cm. (53 ins.). The “survey” ordered by Julius Caesar is referred to in the legend, evidently derived from the Cosmography of Aethicus a work widely read at the time, but this does not prove that the author was able to avail himself of a map based upon that survey. A map essentially identical with that of Hereford, but larger—its diameter is 15.6 cm. (6 in.), and consequently fuller of information—was discovered in 1830 in the old monastery of Ebstorf in Hanover. Its date is 1484. Both maps abound in miniature pictures of towns, animals, fabulous beings and other subjects. The Hereford map is surmounted by a picture of the Day of Judgment. Similar in design, though much smaller of scale and oval in form, are the maps which illustrate the popular Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, a monk of St Werburgh’s Abbey of Chester (d. 1363).
| Fig. 11.—The Hereford Map (c. 1280). |
| Fig. 12.—The Map of Beatus (776). |
Pomponius Mela tells us that beyond the Ethiopian Ocean which sweeps round Africa in the south and the uninhabitable torrid zone, there lies an alter orbis, or fourth part of the world inhabited by Antichthones. On a diagram illustrating the origines of Isidore of Seville (d. 636) this country is shown, but is described as a terra inhabitabilis. It is shown likewise upon a number of maps which illustrate the Commentaries on the Apocalypse, by Beatus, a Benedictine monk of the abbey of Valcavado at the foot of the hills of Liebana in Asturia (776).
Our little map (fig. 12) is taken from a copy of Beatus’ work made in 1203, and preserved at Burgo de Osma in Castille. Similar maps illustrating the Commentaries exist at St Sever (1050), Paris (1203), and Tunis; others are rectangular, the oldest being in Lord Ashburnham’s library (970). Beatus, too, describes the southern land as inhabitabilis. The habitable world is divided among the twelve apostles, whose portraits are given. On the maps illustrating the encyclopaedic Liber floridus by Lambert, a canon of St Omer (1120), this south land “unknown to the sons of Adam,” is stated to be inhabited “according to the philosophers” by Antipodes. Lambert, indeed, seems to have believed in the sphericity of the earth. Fig. 13 shows his map of the world reduced from a MS. at Wolfenbüttel, to which is added a diagram of the zones from a MS. at Ghent, which illustrates Macrobius’ commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis. Diagrams illustrating the division of the world into climata, are to be found in the opus majus of Roger Bacon (d. 1294) and in Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly’s De imagine Mundi (1410).
| Fig. 13. |
Among countries represented on a larger scale on maps, Palestine not unnaturally occupies a prominent place in this age of pilgrimages and crusades (1095-1291). The maps which accompany St Jerome’s translation of the Onomasticon of St Eusebius (388). The same subject is illustrated by a picture-map in mosaic, portions of which were discovered in 1896 on the floor of the church of Madaba to the east of the Dead Sea. This is the oldest original of a map in existence, for it dates back to the 6th century. Among more recent maps of Palestine, that by Petrus Vesconte (1320) is greatly superior to the earlier maps. It illustrates Marino Sanuto’s Secreta fidelium crucis, in which its author vainly appeals to Christendom to undertake another crusade. One of the earliest plans of Jerusalem is contained in Gesta Francorum, a history of the Crusades up to 1106, based upon information furnished by Fulcherius of Chartres (c. 1109).
| Fig. 14.—Matthew of Paris (1236-1259). |
There existed, no doubt, special maps of European countries, but the only documents of that description are two maps of Great Britain, the one of the 12th century, the other by Matthew of Paris, the famous historiographer of the monastery of St Albans (1236-1259).[20]