The geographical lore of the time of the Crusades : $b A study in the history of medieval science and tradition in Western EuropeWright, John Kirtland
History
The geographical lore of the time of the Crusades : $b A study in the history of medieval science and tradition in Western Europe
Wright, John Kirtland
Geography -- History; Geography, Medieval
1. Of the first, zone maps, or diagrams illustrating the division of the
earth’s surface into zones, examples occur in twelfth- and
thirteenth-century manuscripts of Macrobius, of the _De imagine mundi_,
of Lambert’s _Liber floridus_ (Fig. 3), of William of Conches’ _De
philosophia mundi_, of Herrad of Landsperg’s _Hortus deliciarum_, and of
John of Holywood’s _De sphaera_.[537] The Paris manuscript of Peter
Alphonsi’s _Dialogus_ also contains two related diagrams, one showing
the eccentricity of the sun’s orbit and the other the division of the
northern hemisphere into climates. Arabic influence upon Peter Alphonsi
is revealed by the fact that south is at the top of his diagrams,
instead of east, according to the almost universal custom of medieval
Christian cartography.[538]
T-O MAPS AND SALLUST MAPS
2. The diagrammatic T-O group are also represented. By all means the
most interesting of these is a map preserved in a manuscript in St.
John’s College, Oxford, and dating from 1110. Somewhat more elaborate
than others of the same type, this one assigns Greek names to the
cardinal points of the compass, a circumstance which has given rise to a
plausible conjecture that it may have been a copy of an original found
in the Levant at the time of the First Crusade.[539]
[Illustration:
FIG. 3—Zone map in an early twelfth-century manuscript of Lambert of
St. Omer’s _Liber floridus_, viz. Ghent Codex 2, fol. 24 vo. East is
at the top. (From Miller, _Mappaemundi_, vol. iii, 1895, fig. 59.)
]
3. There also date from our period several examples of the ornamented
T-O maps drawn to illustrate Sallust’s works.[540]
BEATUS MAPS
4. We saw that the existing specimens of that series of maps of the
world drawn to elucidate a passage in Beatus’ commentary on the
Apocalypse appear to have come from two sources: (_a_) maps which were
modeled closely on the original map of Beatus or a contemporary copy and
(_b_) those which were merely generalized outlines of it.[541]
_a._ A map dating from 1203 and preserved at Osma in Old Castile comes
nearest to the original in design and form, if not in the richness of
detail (Fig. 4). Alone of all the Beatus type this shows the heads of
the twelve apostles scattered over the earth’s surface. Another map,
probably derived from the same source, is to be found in the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; though it is rich in detail, little
attempt was made to show localities in their proper relative positions,
and consequently the geography represented is chaotic to an extreme.
[Illustration:
FIG. 4—Osma Beatus map dating from 1203 showing the division of the
world among the twelve apostles. East is at the top. (From Miller,
_Mappaemundi_, vol. i, 1895, p. 35.)
]
_b._ There are also three or four maps dating from our period from the
second source. Their main interest lies in the remarkable naïveté of
workmanship.
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