Reality, Symbolism, Time, and Space in Medieval World Maps

Author(s): David Woodward

Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Dec., 1985), pp.
510-521
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Reality,Symbolism,Time, and Space in
Medieval World Maps
David Woodward

Department
ofGeography,
University
ofWisconsin,Madison,WI 53706

Abstract.Medievalmappaemundi carrylevelsof meaningthathave been widelymisunderstood.

Theircompilers have beenjudgedon theirabilityto showgeographical realitystructuredaccording
to a coordinatesystem,buttheprimary of thesemapswas to provideillustrated
function histories
or moralized,didacticdisplaysin a geographical
setting. Thatmedievalthinkers' understandingof
thephysicalworldhas also been underestimated is reflected
in thefrequently repeatedviewsthat
mostmedievalscholarsthought theearthwas flator thatJerusalem shouldbe shownat itscenter.
Thispaperchallenges thesecommonly heldviewsinthelightofrecentreinterpretationsinarthistory
andthehistory ofcartography.Severalthemesareexplored,including thetypeofreality represented
by themaps,thewaythemapcenterchangedas theMiddleAges developed,and therelationship
betweenconceptsoftheearth'ssphericity andthegraphicconstraints on themappaemundi. Finally,
thestudysuggestswaysin whichwe can learnfromthisgenreof maps.We need to evaluatethe
achievements of the MiddleAges on theirown termsand in the contextof theirpurpose.More
forcartography,
specifically themappaemundi showthatmapsmayalso consistofhistorical aggre-
gationsor cumulativeinventoriesofeventsin additionto representing
objectsthatexistcosynchron-
ouslyin space.

Key Words:medievalmappaemundi,
worldmaps,MiddleAges,history
ofcartography,
mapfunc-
tions,cosmographical
concepts.

MEDIEVAL worldmaps,or mappaemundi such as longitudeand latitude.These nine-

as theyarefrequently called,forma well- teenth-century writersalso oversimplifiedand
definedgenreof mapsthathave receivedonly underestimated medievalthinkers' understand-
spasmodicattentionfromgeographers.Some ingofthephysicalworld;thisis reflected inthe
1,100maps,mostlyinmanuscript codicesofthe frequently repeatedviews thatmostmedieval
eighthto thefifteenth centuries,stillsurvive. scholarsthought theearthwas flator thatJeru-
Theyareusuallyschematic inform,andfallinto salemshouldbe shownat its center.Some of
severalsubcategoriesdepending on theirhistor- thesemisunderstandings arosefroma tendency
icaloriginandtheirgraphicstructure. Rootedin to regardthe cultureof the Middle Ages as
boththeHellenisticand Romantraditions, they essentiallystatic.Mappaemundi werethusgath-
wereadaptedby theearlyleadersand scholars eredintoonlyone category, theT-in-Omodel,
oftheChristian Church.To theextentthatthey so oftenreproduced ingeneralhistoriesofgeog-
embodyboth scriptural and classical sources, raphyandcartography. to this
Also contributing
theirmeaning reflects
thechanging emphasesof lack of understanding of medievalcartography
medievalthought.' was theapparentobliviousness to thetechnical
The mappaemundicarrylevels of meaning andconceptual on scribesandartists
constraints
thathave been completelymisunderstood. In oftheperiod:themedia,tools,and techniques,
thenineteenth century,
whensystematic studies and a failureto relatesuchstructural concepts
of thesemapsfirstappeared,theywereinter- as perspective andprojection to themapmaking
pretedin lightoftheviewthatmaps(to be true oftheperiod.
maps)wereintended to showgeographical real- This paper seeks to examinethe validityof
itystructuredaccording to a coordinatesystem, thesecommonly heldviewsofmappaemundi in

AnnalsoftheAssociationofAmericanGeographers,75(4), 1985,pp. 510-521

X Copyright1985 by Associationof AmericanGeographers

510

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 Medieval World Maps 511

thelightofrecentreinterpretations madein art

history and thehistoryof cartography. Its aim
is to showthattheintention ofthecompilers of
thesemapswas as muchhistorical as geograph-
ical and thatthe resulting documentsblended
conceptsofbothtimeandspace as a contextfor
understanding the Christian life.By examining t ~~A S I A
the developmentof such conceptsas the flat
earthwithJerusalem at itscenter,thepaperalso N S
seeksto demonstrate thatthesemapscannotbe
considered as a singlecategory spanning a thou-
sandyearsofmedievalhistory. Finally,I suggest EUROPE AFRICA
that,inthelightofthesedocuments, ourmodern
viewofmapsmayneedadjusting. It is nowfully
acceptedthatmapsneed notnecessarilyshow
onlyEuclideanspace. Perhapswe need also to
considerthe idea thata map does not by its
naturehaveto represent a cosynchronous scene
butmaybe a many-layered cumulation of his- Figure1. Category1: T-O map. Schematicdrawing
toricaleventsas wellas objectsin geographical ofthetripartite worlddividedamongthesonsofNoah.
Asia representedthehomeof the Semiticpeoples,
space. EuropetheJaphetic,andAfricatheHamitic.
Since mappaemundiare betterunderstood
whentheirvariationis recognized,it is conve- of Mallos (c. 168 B.c.) and, ultimatelyfroma
nientto describefourmaincategories: tripartite,Pythagoreanconcept.
zonal, quadripartite, and transitional; typical Intermediatebetween the tripartiteand the
examplesofeachareillustrated inFigures1_4.2
zonal categoriesof mappaemundiis a thirdcat-
The tripartite map typeconsistsof a diskrep- egory, the quadripartite,which contains maps
resenting theinhabited world(0), withinwhich bearing the characteristics of each. Though
is a tripartite schema(T) orientedto the east these are not numerous, they are sufficiently
withAsia takingup theupperhalfofthecircle,
distinctiveand influentialto warrantseparate
Europethe lowerleftquarter,and Africathe treatment.Withintheir circular,oval, or rect-
lowerrightquarter(Fig. 1). The partsof theT
represent thethreemajorhydrographic features
knownto dividethe threepartsof the earth: N
Tanais (the Don River) dividingEurope and
RIGID
Asia,theNile dividing AfricaandAsia, andthe
Mediterranean Sea dividing Europeand Africa. TEMPERATE
The genreis rootedin a classicaltradition, and ZONE
itis conjectured thattheearliesttripartite maps
accompaniedmanuscripts of theDe Bello Jur- TORRID
gurthino of Gaius SallustiusCrispus(Sallust)
(86-34 B.C.).
The zonal categoryis characterizedby ori-
ZONE
entationto the northor southand by therep-
resentation oftheGreekclimatainfiveclimatic
zones thatfollowparallelsof latitude(Fig. 2). TEMPERATE
ZONE
Itsprototype is derivedfromthecosmographical
section(ch. 5-8 ofBook 2) inMacrobius'searly
FRGDZONE
fifth-century A.D. commentaryon Cicero's
DreamofScipio(51 B.C.), whichinturnderived
S
itscosmography fromEratosthenes (c. 275-194 Figure2. Category2: Zonalmap.Schematicdrawing
B.C.), Posidonius(c. 151-35 B.C.), Serapionof of the systemof fiveclimatic zones,derivedfroma
Antiochea(secondor firstcentury B.C.), Crates modeloftheancientGreekgeographers.

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512 Woodward

tion no different fromotherclasses of maps in

the Middle Ages or any otherperiod. The sur-
vivingcorpus ofmedievalworldmaps have been
seen thereforeas a marked retrogressionfrom
an expected gradual improvementin the repre-
sentationof the earth's featureson maps. Thus
Charles Beazley, in his otherwisefundamentally
useful work, was able to write: "The non-sci-
4~~~~~~~~~~~~0. entificmaps of the laterMiddle Ages . . . are of
N 0
4~~~~~~~0 such complete futility. . . that a bare allusion
to the monstrositiesof Hereford and Ebstorf
should suffice"(Beazley 1897-1906, 3:528).
A comparison between two medieval maps
made withina few decades of each otherlends
superficialsupportto Beazley's view. The map-
pamundi known as the HerefordMap (c. 1290)
and the earliest known dated portolanchartby
w Petrus Vesconte (1311) both featurethe Medi-
Figure3. Category3: Quadripartite
map. Schematic terranean Sea prominently,but the positional
drawingofthecombinationofthetripartite
worldwith accuracy of theVesconte map is clearlysuperior
thefourthpart-inhabitedby Antipodeans-sepa-
ratedbyan "ocean river." to that of the HerefordMap, as Figure 5 dem-
onstrates.This assessment should be modified
in several significantways, however. The first
angularshapes orientedto the east, there is an
involves studyingthe mappamundion its own
"ocean river" that divides the known tripartite
terms,accordingto its intendedfunctionand in
worldfromthefourthpart,unknownon account
the context of the scriptoriumin which it was
of the sun's heat, but inhabitedby the Antipo-
compiled.This view was forcefully expressedby
deans (Fig. 3). The maps are believed to stem
John K. Wright,who developed the theme-
fromone lost eighth-century prototypeof Bea-
echoed by Kimble-that the lack of geometrical
tus of Liebana in his Commentatyon theApoc-
accuracy in the mappaemundidid not necessar-
alypse of St. Johnin whichhe stressedthe man-
ily warrantcriticism,as this attributewas not
date of the Apostles to travelin all parts of the
earthto preach the Gospel.
E
The fourthcategory, which is transitional
betweenthe medieval and Renaissance periods,
reflectsthe profoundchange in mappaemundi
that took place in the fourteenthand fifteenth
centuries.These maps differ fundamentally from
the zonal or tripartitemodels of the late Roman
world,and belong in manyways to the spiritof
the Renaissance, having as theirbasis the con-
figurationof the MediterraneanSea commonly N XS
foundin the portolanchartsand relyingin some
degree on the contemporaryrecordingof explo-
ration,especially the Portuguesevoyages to the
Atlantic islands and along the west coast of
Africa(Fig. 4).

Realism and Mappaemundi

Figure4. Category4: Transitionalmap. Schematic
drawing ofa fifteenth-century
mappamundi. The out-
From the late-nineteenthcenturyon, several linesoftheMediterranean Sea are basedon portolan
authorshave viewed the mappaemundiprimar- charts,whiletherestofthemapretainsthetraditional
ily as bearers of locational information,
a func- circularframe.

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 Medieval WorldMaps 513

HEREFORD MAP ca. 1290 VESCONTE 1311

Figure5. Diagramcomparing theeasternpartof theMediterraneanSea as shownon theHereford

Map (c.
1290)(left)and a portolanchartbyPietroVescontedated1311(right).

the primarygoal of this genre of map (Wright this whole island would have been longer"
1925,248; Kimble 1938, 181). (Vaughan 1968, 243).
We should not assume, however, that there This does not mean that the importanceof
was no interestin geographicallocation by the current geographical content was always
compilersof these maps but thattherewere cer- ignored.Using theHerefordMap as an example,
tain prescribed constraintswithin which they Crone has demonstrated that lists of place-
had to work. The rare account of how to make names from writtenitinerarieswere incorpo-
a mappamundiby Hugh of St. Victor in his On
the Mystical Noah's Ark provides an example
of the kind of frameworkinto which geograph-
ical informationcould be fitted:
Theperfect arkis circumscribedwithan oblongcir-
cle, whichtoucheseach of its corners,and the d i a
space whichthecircumference includesrepresents
theearth.In thisspace,a worldmapis depictedin
thisfashion:thefront ofthearkfacestheeast,and ~P er s ia
therearfacesthewest.... In theapex to theeast
formed betweenthecircleand thehead of theark
Cha I d e a
is Paradise.... In theotherapex, whichjuts out
to thewest,is theLast Judgment withthechosen
to theright,and thereprobates to theleft.In the
northern cornerof thisapex is Hell, wherethe
damnedarethrown withtheapostatespirits
1844-64,vol. 176,col. 700).
(Migne :.a up~p

The bounding shape of the mappamundi,

whethercircular,oval, or rectangular,was thus
Mdd. MS. n004, o. rrGalil
predeterminedby biblical or classical tradition.
Into this space were arranged the features
deemed significantforthe reader. As we might
expect, the scale forthatpart of the map of pri-
maryinterestwas frequentlylarger: for exam- ~ egean
ple, the Jeromemap of Asia exaggerates Asia 0Se

Minor to the point that it is almost as large as

the representationof the rest of Asia (Fig. 6).
Likewise, Matthew Paris's well-knownexpla-
nationof distortionon his map of Britaindem-
onstratesthattherewas a conscious awareness mapofAsia. Adaptedfromthe
Figure6. The Jerome
thatscale could be convenientlyadjusted within tefhcentury manuscript in the BritishLibrary,
certainconstraints:"if the page had allowed it, Ad.M.10049, fol.64r.

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514 Woodward

ratedintothemap.Thoughitssize(163 x 135cm) dimension of time (Pdcht 1962, 2; Hindman

clearlyprecludedits use as a vade mecumfor 1977, 38).
actualjourneys(forwhichwrittenitineraries, The mappaemundiare thecartographicequiv-
pilgrimguides,and verbaldirectionsmightwell alent of narrativemedieval pictures. The thir-
haveserved),it is perhapslikelythattheHere- teenth-century authorof the HerefordMap even
fordmapand theotherlargethirteenth-century refersto his graphicworkas a "history" on the
wallmapscouldhavefulfilled a practicaldidac- map itself: "All who have this history.
ticpurposeindeveloping theconfidence orstim- This usage is stillsupportedby one definitionof
ulatingtheimaginationofintended travelers,for historyas a "pictorialrepresentationofan event
which recognizable content was desirable or series of incidents," supportedby the use of
(Crone 1965). theword "historiated"to mean "decorated with
For thispurposeof spiritual education,how- figures" (OxfordEnglish Dictionary, 1961 ed.,
ever,morewas requiredof the mappamundi s.v. "historiated"). This themehas been devel-
thana modicum ofcurrent geography. The maps oped extensivelyby von den Brinckenwherethe
neededalso to be imbuedwiththerichnessof mappaemundi are seen as syncreticpictorial
theChristian historical tradition.It is thusalso chroniclesparallelto the textualchroniclesfrom
important torealizethatthemappaemundi were St. Jerome to Hartmann Schedel (von den
not snapshotsof the world's geographyat a Brincken1968, 118). JuergenSchulz has applied
givenpointintime,buta blending ofhistory and this idea of the didactic moralized map to art
geography, a projection ofhistorical eventson a history,focusingparticularlyon cityviews in the
geographical framework. This pointwas made late-medievalperiod and the Renaissance.
by Bevan and Phillott(1873) in a preliminary
way,buta fullillustration of thisthemewas to Cartographic are agreedthatthemain
historians
function of thesemaps was therepresentation of
awaitthecarefulstudiesof G. R. Crone(1954, religiousmysteriesand history,ratherthanthe
1965),againwithreference totheHereford Map. recording ofprecisegeographical facts.Theynever
Cronedemonstrated withminute documentation pause,however,to explainthisaspectofthemedi-
thattheHereford Map was a complexblending evalmap,whichis irrelevant totheirmainconcern,
of Greek,Roman,and Christiansources and thegrowth of geographicalknowledge. Forthehis-
torianofart,bycontrast, itis precisely
thisdidactic
tracedits pedigreeback to thelate fourthand tradition,its rangein timeand content,thatis of
earlyfifthcenturiesA.D. As theinterest in map- primary interest (Schulz1978,446).
paemundihas grownin recentyears-aided in
partby thepublication of a catalogueof these The sources of historical and geographical
documents(Destombes1964)-several histori- informationon the mappaemundi were both
ansandarthistorians haveturned theirattention classical and biblical-the commemorationof
to themaps,particularly in the contextof the famous events and places being sometimes
relationshipbetweentextandgraphicimagesin inseparable,withthe Old Testamentratherthan
medievalwritingand painting(Ruberg1980, the New more frequentlyrepresented.Though
551-92). Mostpaintersassumethattheborder early Judaismemphasized the importanceof an
oftheirworkenclosesa cosynchronous space, event's location, the earliestChristiansshowed
butnarrative painting, in whicha storyis illus- little interest-with some important excep-
tratedby showingseveralstagesof a narrative tions-in the exact location of even theirmost
side by side withinthe sameframe,has a long sacred events(North1979,76). The teachingsof
history.In themonumental artofancientEgypt Christ emphasized the spiritual and not the
and Mesopotamia, forexample,sequentialsto- physical world; forexample, in response to the
ries of battles and othernotable events are question of whetherto build a shrineat Gerizim
recordedwithina singleframe(Groenewegen- or Jerusalem, Christ's answer was to be less
Frankfort 1951).In medievalpopularnarrative concernedwiththe location thanwiththe moti-
illustrations,
particularlyofbiblicalstories,sev- vation of the proposed action (John4, 19-24).
eraleventsseparatedby timeare portrayed in There are, moreover,few allusions to global or
thesame scene,notin sequenceas in a frieze cosmological matters:the words sphere,globe,
or cartoon,butplacedin theirappropriate posi- or hemisphere in the geographical sense are
tionsin the scene. The chiefcharactersthus nowherefoundin its pages.3
reappearin a staticlandscapeto expressthe The early leaders of the Church, in reaction

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 Medieval World Maps 515

to theclassicalphilosophers, werealso anxious shapeoftheaura,whichis also knownas a man-

to pointout thattheknowledgeof informationdorla(Italianforalmond),an extremely common
abouttheearthwas ofstrictly secondaryimpor- symbolin Christian iconography fromthefifth
tanceto theChristian, whosemindshouldbe on century on, is also reflected in theshapeofcer-
a higherspiritualplane.Thus,in characterizingtainmappaemundi themselves, suchas a num-
a truebeliever,St. Augustinewas able to say, ber of mid-fourteenth-century maps by the
"a faithfulman .. . although he knowsnotthe EnglishchroniclerRanulfHigdenor the map
circlesof the GreatBear, is muchbetterthan knownas the Genoese map of 1457now pre-
anotherwho can weighout the elementsand servedin theBibliotecaNazionalein Florence.
numberthe stars and measure the skies" Thiscommonsymbolic shapethusmaystandfor
(Augustine 1965,5:4). theworldas Christ'sdomain.
The functions of medievalmappaemundi can Withall theseconsiderations, itis inadvisable
thusbe regardedas beingon a different plane to comparethe geographicalaccuracyof the
fromthoseoftheportolanchartsor estatemaps mappaemundiwiththatof contemporary or
ofthesameperiod.As teaching ratherthanloca- latermaptypes,suchas theportolanchartsor
tionaldevices, theyreliedon mystical,sym- thegreatwallmapsoftheRenaissance.The his-
bolic,and allegoricalimageryto a remarkable toryofcartography, likethehistory of science,
extent.The spiritualhistoryof the Christian is movingaway frombeingprimarily a search
world,fromits Creationto theLast Judgment,forprecursors to an attempt to understand the
witha sequenceof divinelyplannedeventsin developments in variousperiodson theirown
between,suchas theSalvationbyJesusChrist, terms.For mappaemundi thismeansstudying
are all carefullyportrayed-in moreor less themnotprimarily as repositories of thencur-
detail-on the mappaemundi. rentgeographical knowledge(althougha modi-
The threefold divisionof theworldin theT- cum of such information may sometimesbe
O mapsrepresents thepeoplingof theearthin obtainedfromnowhereelse) but as illustrated
the threecontinents by each of Noah's sons. historiesor moralized,didacticdisplaysin a
The familiesofShem(theeldestson havingthe geographical setting.
maximumshare-or Asia-in the tripartite
scheme),Ham (Africa),and Japheth(Europe)
are oftendepictedor listedon thesemaps.This The Map Center
traditionaldivisionis thesourceforthenaming
of thethreegreatgroupsof peoplesin theOld The narrative historicalcharacter ofthemap-
World:theSemitic,Hamitic,andJaphetic. paemundiis also revealedinthechoiceofa cen-
The Passionof Christis also symbolizedby tralfeature.It is commonly assumedthatthe
theT-O maps.Lanmanhas suggested thattheT majority ofmedievalworldmapswerecentered
in theT-O schemarepresents a cruxcommissa on Jerusalem, followingthe biblicalpassage:
or tau cross, and thisobservationis lentcre- "This cityof Jerusalem I have set amongthe
denceparticularly whenthe ends of thecross- nations,withthe othercountriesroundabout
piece are trimmed at an angle,as in Figure7 her" (Ezek. 5,5).4 Therewas also, as we have
(Lanman 1981). Sometimes,as in the Ebstorf seen,a definite spatialsensitivity revealedinthe
map-a hugethirteenth-century mappamundi Old Testamentthatrenderedthe location of
unfortunately destroyedin WorldWar II-the eventsin Jewishhistoryintimately connected
bodyof Christis literally superimposed on the withtheeventsthemselves (Cohn1981,2).
map of theworld.His head is at theeast,feet We wouldexpectthemappaemundi to reflect
inthewest,andarmsoutspreadto gatherin the thisconcept,anditis truethatthreeofthebest
northand thesouthin a powerful gesturesym- knownand most oftenillustratedmappae-
bolizingthesalvationoftheworld. mundi-the Hereford,Ebstorf,and Psalter
The thirdmainstageofChristian history, the maps-are all preciselycenteredon Jerusalem.
Last Judgment, is represented eitherbythefig- Fromthetimeofthesemaps(thethirteenth cen-
ure of Christin Gloryor of God theFatherat tury)to aboutthe middleof thefifteenth cen-
thetopofthemappaemundi intheeasterly loca- tury,itcan be saidthatthisfeature was typical.
tionof Paradise.An aura of lightsymbolizing Butthistwo-century periodis byno meansrep-
holiness may also surroundthe figure.The resentative of theentireMiddleAges; it is but

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516 Woodward

::::: :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ViSS >..ft: "X'0: A;ff;C~ t0 0 :XiffX0ii; :fffti

N: X ' \ 0 t000Sw?t 00fE00X f ;t fXE0

:0V'
t'2~~~~~~~~~.77

4i,0' W"o: 0s
KM&.

Figure7. A T-Omappiamundidemonstratinga truncated Sallustmanuscript

crossbar.Fromaneleventh-century
intheBibliotecaMediceaLaurenziana,Florence,Plut.64.18,fol.63v.

one of severaldifferent phases in themedieval century(such as thosebased on thefourth- or

period,of whichat leastfourcan be identified fifth-century Historia Adversum Paganos of
forthe mappaemundi.5 Paulus Orosius)the mapsdo notappearto be
Nor do the threethirteenth-century maps centeredon any particularplace. The eighth-
mentioned above-which fallintothetripartitecentury Albimapandthetenth-century "Anglo-
T-in-Ocategory-constitute theonlymajorcat- Saxon" map are examples.Otherinfluential
egory,an oversimplification frequentlyrepeated mapsare centeredoh places otherthanJerusa-
intheliterature.In thefirst ofthefourcategories lem. Followingan ancientGreektradition, the
introduced at thebeginning of thispaper-the worldmapof Henryof Mainz(c. 1110)is cen-
tripartite-itis commonly assumedthat,as the teredon theCyclades,theislandssurrounding
T represents themeetingof theMediterraneanthesacredisle ofDelos.
withthe Don-BlackSea-Aegean-Nile axis, the The zonal maps,whichforma majorgroup
Holy Land is nearenoughto thatintersectionconsisting ofover300maps,areclearlycentered
forJerusalem to be at the centerof the map. ontheequator,somewhere inAfrica.In thelater
Thereare,however,notonlymanyexamplesof zonal maps, the mythicaltownof Aryn,the
theintersection ofthestemand thecrossbarof Islamiccenterof theearthlyingon thecentral
theT beingfarabove thecenter,butalso ofthe meridian bisectingtheinhabited world,is prom-
placingof Jerusalem farfromthisintersection. inentlymarked.Jerusalem is clearlynotin the
In mostexamplesoftheseschematic mapsJeru- center.Furthermore, the maps in the interme-
salem is notmarked at all, and in thenon-sche- diatecategory,consistinglargelyof theBeatus
matictripartite mapsfrombeforethethirteenthmaps,are usuallycenterednoton anyidentifi-

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 Medieval World Maps 517

ableplace butsomewhere in theMediterraneanof theirviewshas thusprobablybeen exagger-

Sea. atedon accountoftheircontroversial nature.An
It was onlyafterthestrengthening oftheidea excellentexampleof thisis foundin theundue
of Jerusalem as the spiritualcenter,a natural spaceingeneralhistorical textsgivento Cosmas
outcomeoftheCrusades,thata noticeableshift Indicopleustes'sixth-century conceptof a flat,
occurredtowardcentering themapson Jerusa- rectangular, four-cornered earthwitha vaulted
lem.This thenbecomesa characteristic of the heaven(Jones1934,305).Thisis nowpreserved
fourth category, thetransitional, fromtheendof only in two manuscriptsand was virtually
thethirteenth century to aboutthemid-fifteenth ignoredby medievalcommentators, withthe
century,when new discoveriesextendedthe exceptionof Photiusof Constantinople, who
margins oftheworldmapandthecentermoved statednotonlythat"the styleis poorand the
accordingly. By then,AndreaBianco had to arrangement hardlyup to the ordinarystan-
stateexplicitly whyhe had brokenwiththetra- dard" butthat"he mayfairlybe regardedas a
ditionofcentering mapson Jerusalem, andeven fabulistratherthana trustworthy authority"
triedto explainit away on his map of 1436on (Photius1920,36:31-32).Nevertheless, thelight
whatmustbe one of the earliestreferences to of Cosmas's fameis keptburning by suchhis-
the conceptof a centerof populationdensity: torianswhocontinue to writethathe "had great
"Jerusalem is indeedthecenteroftheinhabited popularityamongeven the educated till the
worldlatitudinally, thoughlongitudinally it is twelfth century"(Randall1926,23).
somewhatto the west, but since the western The views of the commonpopulaceon the
portionis morethicklypopulatedby reasonof issue are of coursebarelyrecorded.There is
Europe,therefore Jerusalem is also the center someevidencefromthecosmographical content
longitudinally ifwe regardnotemptyspace but of the vernacularepics and romancesof the
thedensityofpopulation"(Bianco 1436). twelfthandthirteenth centuriesdesignedforthe
everyday personthatmanythought oftheearth
as a disk(Tattersall1981,46). Buttheinterpre-
tationof theword"round" in thesepoemsas
The Flat Earth eithercircularor sphericalis fraught withcon-
fusion,andthesimilesof"apple" and "ball"-
The questionoftheextentoftheunderstand- frequently usedintheseworks-wouldseemto
ingoftheearth'ssphericity in theMiddleAges lend morecredenceto a commonview of the
is confounded by severalfactors,summarized earth'ssphericity, evenbefore1300.
by severalrecentauthors(Randles1980;Tatter- The shapeoftheearthseemshowevertohave
sall 1981).As we have discussed,themedieval beenofless interest tothemajority oftheclergy,
periodconsistsofseveralentirely differentsub- letalonethegeneralpopulace,thantheconcept
periodsanditis unwiseto assumethattheviews of humanlifeexistingon theotherside of the
of a few individualscan be extendedto the world.The ninth-century confrontationbetween
periodas a whole.Even in theearliestperiod, VirgilofSalzburgandPopeZachariaswas about
however,despitethevariousdifficulties of bib- thehereticaldoctrineof theAntipodesand not
lical interpretation,mostearlyChurchleaders aboutthesphericity of theearth(Betten1924).
held to the classical conceptof the spherical It was possibleto believein a sphericalearth
earth,and Augustine specifically mentions it at without knowingwhatwas on theotherside of
least twice (Augustine1965,5:51). The most it. The Antipodesconcept,withthe apparent
popularof the late Roman secular writers absurdityof people standingupside down,
Pliny,Macrobius,and MartianusCapella-also causedan embarrassment fortheChurch,as the
made unequivocalreferencesto its spherical baptismalstatusof a race of peoplewho were
shape. It was perhapsin overreaction to these not descendedfromthe sons of Adamwas in
worksthat Severianus and Lactantius,who question.EvenwellintotheAgeofDiscoveries,
deniedonprinciple thatanything "pagan" could books werebeingwritten againstthe doctrine,
be accurate,includedthesphericalearthintheir suchas theContraAntipodesofZachariaLilio,
sweepingcondemnation of the pagan writings a monkin the churchof St. JohnLateranin
(Jones1934).But it muststillbe said thattheir Rome(Randles1980,31).
writings werenotto have the influenceof the Whateverthe confusionabout the general
greaterChurchFathersandthattheimportance medievalviewsoftheearth'sshape,thereis no

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518 Woodward

reasonto believethatthe best-known formof

mappamundi, the T-O map, withits tripartite
divisionof the inhabitedworld and the sur-
rounding ocean river,was primafacieevidence
foruniversalmedievalbeliefin a flatearth.It
was noteasyto depicta three-dimensional solid
on a two-dimensional medium.Medievalcon-
cepts of projectionand perspectivewere not
welldeveloped.In thebroadestsense,itis pos-
sible to arguethatany transformation froma
sphereto a plane involvesan impliedprojec-
tion.6Thus, even the simpleMacrobiandia-
grams(forexamplein Fig. 2), whichshowthe
climataas zonesbetweenparallellineson a cir-
cle representing thehemisphere, couldbe said
to be on a projectionthat approximatesan
orthographic (equatorialaspect);theauthorwas
quite aware thatthese climata were circular
zones on the globe,yettheyare portrayed edition
as Figure8. Isidore'sfivecircles.Froma printed
straight parallellines on the map. Despitethe of theEtymologiae, 1472.ReproducedfromKimble
(1938),opp. p. 36.
achievements ofthethirteenth-century philoso-
pherRogerBacon, whohad a clearidea of the
value of usinga systematic coordinatesystem lightand uses the word globus to express this
to transform and inventorythe positionsof (Fontaine 1960, 333).
places and who describeda systematic projec- On the other hand, several passages have
tion,therewas no generalunderstanding in been used to indicate that Isidore thoughtthe
ChristianEurope of the way to representa world was flat. For example, he describes the
sphericalsurfaceon a plane untilthatknowl- earthas a "circle of lands" (orbis) like a wheel
edge-preservedin theGeography of Claudius (Migne 1850,82:495). Isidore also seems to have
Ptolemy-was revealedthroughtranslation at confused the Greek zonal concept, which he
thebeginning ofthefifteenth century. gleaned from the Poeticon Astronomicon of
The controversy can perhapsbest be illus- Hyginus(readingitin Latin), and misunderstood
tratedfromtheexampleofthewritings (partic- its mainpoint:thatthelines separatingthezones
ularly the Etymnologiae and the De Natura were only circles when they were drawn on a
Reriun)of Isidoreof Seville,one of the most globe. When applying the five zones to his
influential
encyclopedistsof the MiddleAges. world, therefore,they emerged as five circles
Isidoreacceptedthe sphericityof theuniverse placed on a flat disk as in Figure 8 (Fontaine
andis quiteexplicitinhiswordingon thatques- 1960, 208-11). This could hardly be taken as
tion(Brehaut1912).Isidorealso uses theword evidence of Isidore's beliefin a flatearth,how-
globus several times in the De Natura Rerurn ever, but ratherhis inabilityto grasp the geom-
butalwaysindescribingthemoonortheplanets etryinherentin the Greek climateconcept.
(Fontaine1960,223,231,239,277). Buthe cau- In summary,therefore, whereas Isidore some-
tiouslyavoidedcommentson the sphericity of times appears confused about the shape of the
the earthitselfexceptin a passage wherehe earth,the weightof the evidence tends toward
describestheocean bathingtheconfinesof the his acceptance of its sphericity.When viewed in
globe(Fontaine1960,325).His awarenessofthe the general context of his time, in which most
conceptofa sphericalearthis further
indicated of the influentialChristianand secular writers
in the Epistula Sisebuti, an astronomicalpoem had also propoundedthisview, it is not surpris-
in theformofa letterto Isidoreby Sise-
written ing thatthis was the case.
but,KingoftheGoths,forwhomtheDe Natura Later Christianwritersnot only specifically
Rerurnhadbeenwritten (Fontaine1960,151).In accepted the sphericityof the earth, but pro-
explainingan eclipse,Sisebutwritesaboutthe vided explicit reasons for theirview. Thus the
globebeingan obstacleto the sun's
terrestrial Venerable Bede (672/3-735) explained that the

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 Medieval World Maps 519

cause of theunequallengthof the days lay in world.Nor can thedisk-shaped appearancein

theglobularshapeof theearth,describing it as manyofthesemapsbe takenliterally to reflect
notonly"roundlikea shield,butalso in every a generalbeliefina flatearth.As we haveseen,
direction,like a playground ball" (Bede 1843- this was probablynot the prevailingopinion
44, 210). amongthose (admittedly not a greatnumber)
In thelaterMiddleAges,themostinfluentialwhocaredabouttheissue.
commentators agreedthattheearthwas spher- Second, by exaggerating the spreadof time
ical. The writings of Aristotle,withhis elegant depictedwithin theirborders, themappaemundi
three-part proofof the sphericity of the earth, also demonstrate thatmapsin generalneednot
or the astronomical and geographical workof be seen as reflecting onlyspatialrealitiesand
Ptolemy, forwhichthe conceptwas essential, perceptions or picturesof theearthstoppedat
hadfoundtheirwayintotheWestas thechan- a givenmoment in time.Theymayalso consist
nels of classical and Arabiclearningbecame of historicalaggregations or cumulative inven-
openedafterthe twelfth century.In the four- toriesof eventsthatoccur in space. For the
teenth andfifteenth centuries-despitethemyth mappaemundi, thismeanta curiousmelangeof
stillperpetuated in someschoolhistory textsof bothChristianand secularlegendaryhistory.
Columbus,the commonnavigator,valiantly Even the practiceof placingJerusalem at the
defendingthe idea of the globe before the center of the mappaemundiovercame the
learnedclergy7-there wouldhaveremained lit- weightof theclassicalseculartradition onlyat
tle doubtin the mindof the medievalscholar theveryendofthemedievalperiod.The logical
that,in Gautierde Metz's words,"a mancould inseparability of historyand geography is thus
go aroundtheworldas a flymakesthetourof vividly illustrated by the mappaemundi.
an apple" (Caxton1913,52). Because theyprovidea dual contextin which
The limitationsof the two-dimensional humaneventsunfold, bothtimeand space have
mediumof themappaemundi and thelack of a been of primeinterest to thephilosopher. Ber-
clear conceptof projectivegeometry and per- trandRussellcalledthestudyofthisunified con-
spectiveappearto havecontributed to thebelief text "chronogeography" (Russell 1927,283),
thattheyrepresented a flat,disk-shaped earth. and thereseemsto be a growing awarenessof
But since the overridingpurpose of these the importanceof integrating bothgeography
maps-as narrative histories-wasnotto con- andhistory as providing a unifiedcontext forour
veyfactsaboutthesize and shapeof theearth understanding of the processesthatshape the
exceptwheretheyboredirectly on theChristian world.
mission,theycan hardlybe criticizedfornot For cartography, thishas significantimplica-
reflectingthephilosophical thought ofthetime. tions.No map represents featureson its face
observedat preciselythe same time.Even in
moderntopographic maps,thedatesof compi-
Conclusion lationof its several parts mayvaryby several
years.Nevertheless, themodernmapoftenpro-
Whatcan we learnfromchallenging theoft- vides the illusionthatthe objectsin the land-
repeatedmisconceptions concerning medieval scape it portraysare cosynchronous. Thereis
worldmaps?In thefirstplace,itunderlines the perhapsa case to be madefora modification of
need,nowrecognized bymedievalhistorians, to thisidea, of providing a new kindof reference
evaluatethe achievements of the MiddleAges mapthatrevealsexplicitly thelayersofhistori-
on theirown termsand in thecontextof their cal events,processes,and artifacts thathave
purpose.The function ofthemappaemundi was shaped the presentlandscape,as well as the
primarily to providea visualnarrative ofChris- objectsthatnowexistwithinit. This of course
tianhistorycast in a geographical framework,has been attemptedin historicalmaps and
not to communicategeographicalor cosmo- atlaseswithvaryingdegreesof success,but it
graphical facts.Theythusrepresent an entirely has not yet been extendedsystematically to
different cartographictraditionand should modernlarge-scale reference maps.It is notthe
therefore not be ridiculedon the groundsthat purposeof thispaper to explorethe ways in
theyappeared as retrogressionsto an ever- whichthisblendingof geographyand history
improving literalgeographicalpictureof the could be accomplished cartographically. But it

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520 Woodward
may be fruitful to expand the agenda of cartog-
raphersto studyways in which the large-scale
referencemap can representthehistoricalmean-
ingof the landscape. Maps will thencome to be
seen as artifactsthat can portraythe location
and distributionnot only of objects and condi-
tions but also of events and processes.
Acknowledgments
I shouldliketo thankAnneGodlewska,BrianHarley,
RobertSack,andYi-FuTuanfortheirhelpful reading
oftheearlierdraftsofthemanuscript. Thanksarealso
due to thestaffof the Universityof WisconsinCar-
tography Laboratory, especiallyOnno Brouwer,for
preparing themaps.
Notes
1. This paper reports preliminaryresearch for a
chapteron medieval mappaemundi prepared for
a larger work edited by Harley and Woodward
(forthcoming).Other issues involving the map-
paemnundi and fullreferenceswill be foundin that
work. For recentlypublishedgeneral studies, see
Ruberg (1980) and Arentzen(1984).
2. There have been several attemptsat classifying
mappaemundi, as in the standard catalogue of
medievalworldmaps editedby Destombes (1964).
The classificationproposed here is explained fur-
therin Harley and Woodward (forthcoming).
3. The phrasein Psalm 83,11, "surface of theglobe,"
is now regardedto have no geographical signifi-
cance (Mahood 1968, 275, n.11). In addition,the
frequentreferencesto "the round world" in the
original (sixteenth-century)Book of Common
Prayer, as in Psalm 89:12, 96:10, 98:8 (Pss. 88,
95, and 97 respectivelyin theBible) are an expres-
sion of circularityratherthan sphericity,fromthe
Latin of the Vulgate orbis terrae. The only spe-
cificmentionof a "map" (or at least a townview)
that I have been able to find in the Bible is in
Ezekiel 4:1: "Man, take a tile [Vulgate: lateremn]
and set it beforeyou. Draw a city on it, the city
of Jerusalem"(New EnglishBible). It is also pos-
sible, as Menashe Har-El believes, that maps
were in use for the extensive survey (or "regis-
ter" in the New English Bible) dividingthe tribes
of Israel, foundin Joshua 13-19, especially 18:5
(Har-El 1981, 19-20).
4. This oversimplification is also repeated in some
general books on the historyof geography,most
recently in Holt-Jensen (1980, 11) where it is
statedthatin the Middle Ages "the worldbecame
a flatdisk withJerusalemat its center."
5. Four stages are proposed in Harley and Wood-
ward(forthcoming). Macrobius to Isidore: thelate
Greco-Romanand PatristicPeriod, (c. 400-700);
Bede to Lambert of St. Omer (c. 700-1100);
Henry of Mainz to the Herefordmap (c. 1100-
1300); and Pietro Vesconte to Fra Mauro, (c.
1300-1460).
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6. This issue was discussed by Tobler(1966).
7. This mythwas greatlyexpanded by Washington
Irvingin his biographyof Columbus. See Morison
(1942, 1:117).
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