Mappa Mundi: A Medieval Look at Time and Place

Peg Meier
Star Tribune Company

September x, 2001

This is a map completely unlike maps as we know them. It wasn't intended
to help find places. It relied as much on pictures as on words; many of
its viewers couldn't read. It was to be treated reverentially.

For a few hours after you view it, you hesitate to sloppily fold
and stuff any map into the glove compartment of your car.

Drawn in England in about 1290, it's called the Mappa Mundi ("map of the world"). It's the only complete wall map of Earth to have survived from the Middle Ages.

It's stunningly beautiful and big and complex. But to us today, it's weird and wildly fanciful.

The world is depicted as round and flat. It's populated with such diverse creatures as Adam and Eve, Noah and his beasts, Emperor Caesar Augustus, a man riding a very unrealistic crocodile, and an imaginary being called a Sciapod who shelters himself from the burning sun with one huge foot. Mythological beasts jostle for space. The 12 winds are named and represented by dragons and grotesque squatting figures.

East, not north, is at the map's top. Jerusalem is the center of the world. Countries and oceans are squeezed and stretched to fit into the map's circle. Short descriptions offer such wisdom as, "Here are strong and fierce camels."

Mappa Mundi is on prominent display at the gorgeous cathedral in Hereford, England. If you find yourself in western England (check a modern map), it's certainly worth a stop.

Work of History

More than a reference for geography, the Mappa Mundi is a work of history, zoology, anthropology and especially theology. It reveals how 13th-century scholars interpreted the world in spiritual terms. The map covers all time, from creation to doomsday.

Don't think of it as a map, tourists are told. Think of it as a kind of picture encyclopedia.

Hey, what's that?

The longer you look, the more pops out. See, there's a harvest scene with horse, wagon and a farmer with pitchfork. Who knows why, but over here is a sketch of a performing bear. There's a legendary Norwegian, Gansmir, with his skis and ski pole. On his right are two lifelike animals: a bear, who might well be prowling through that wooded land, and an ape, who certainly would not.

Some of the information came from travelers and written accounts. Some apparently came purely from imagination. Try this one: In a frigid climate, people are depicted as having huge ears to wrap themselves against the cold.

The Mappa Mundi was drawn on a single sheet of parchment (probably calf skin), bigger than four by five feet (1.2 by 1.5 meters). The parchment has yellowed with age, and the colors mostly have faded or flaked off. Rivers and sea, once bright blue and green, are brown. Oddly, the Red Sea is still bright red.

The world is contained within a large circle labeled around its circumference with the letters spelling MORS (death), indicating that all within the circle must die.

At the parchment's very top, above the map, Christ sits in judgment. Below him, inside the gates of heaven, is the Virgin Mary with three attending angels. There's also a winged devil, gleefully dragging sinners toward the gates of hell, and an angel blowing a trumpet to welcome the righteous to Paradise.

Not a Travel Guide

During the Dark Ages, much previously revealed knowledge was lost. Only through the work of monks who copied old drawing and scripts did some survive. Even many monks couldn't read, so when they copied information they had a high chance of error. A perfect example in the Mappa Mundi is that the words for Africa and Europe are transposed.

The mapmaker probably used itineraries of the time listing towns along commercial and pilgrim routes, although it's doubtful that the map was intended as a guide for travelers. That's just as well, because geographical errors abound. Scotland, for example, is shown as an island, instead of being firmly attached to England.

The map's purpose is uncertain. A note requests the prayers of "all who possess this history, or shall hear or read or see it," which suggests an educational purpose. Its more than 500 pictures could have provided endless subjects for lectures or sermons.

The Hereford Cathedral dates back to the 11th century and, like all ancient cathedrals, is in need of continual maintenance. Money was scarce in the late 1900s, and appeals and bazaars didn't bring in enough. The Mappa Mundi was put up for sale.

The decision was not easy. The map was seen as the cathedral's greatest treasure. On the other hand, if repairs weren't made, especially to the massive stone tower, the whole building would be unsafe.

Desperate prayers were said. John Paul Getty Jr. and the British National Heritage Memorial Fund came to the rescue.

Getty donated more than U.S. $2 million for a new addition to house both the Mappa Mundi and the historic libraries of medieval books and manuscripts. Queen Elizabeth dedicated the building in 1996.

Besides the map, the library has another powerful reminder of the wonders of information. When the written word was scarce and books irreplaceable, libraries used heavy chains to secure volumes to bookshelves.

At the Hereford Cathedral, the "Chained Library" contains volumes that date back to the eighth century. Its book presses and reading desks were made in 1611. It is the largest chained library to survive with all its chains, rods and locks intact.

Copyright 2001 Star Tribune