This influenced European attitudes to people from other countries. When Europeans went to Asia, Africa, and the Americas they were all too ready to dismiss the peoples and cultures they encountered as primitive or evil. The scene in the bottom left-hand corner of the map shows the Emperor Augustus ordering a map of the Roman Empire to be made. The resulting map is said to have been carved into a marble wall near the Forum, the public square at the heart of ancient Rome.
No such Roman maps survive, but medieval mappae mundi were probably based upon more accurate Roman originals. Back to Medieval Geography. Measuring 1. Scholars believe it was made around the year and shows the history, geography and destiny of humanity as it was understood in Christian Europe in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.
The inhabited part of the world as it was known then, roughly equivalent to Europe, Asia and North Africa, is mapped within a Christian framework. Jerusalem is in the centre, and east is at the top. East, where the sun rises, was where medieval Christians looked for the second coming of Christ. Since the handwriting in the map is consistent, Firman and other scholars believe it was labelled by one scribe, while two or three artists may have drawn the illustrations.
The city of Lincoln and its cathedral are also depicted in vivid detail on the map, while Hereford appears to have been added near the River Wye almost as an afterthought. Kupfer argues that there are two perspectives of the world rendered within the map: one showing a humanistic and mortal vision, and another showing a divine perspective.
Historian Sarah Arrowsmith says the Mappa Mundi would have been awe-inspiring to the average visitor during the Middle Ages. Kept behind two wooden doors, the map was concealed during much of the year and only displayed to the public during special days and events. And in an age rife with symbolism and rituals — from the clothing people wore to religious and civil ceremonies — the map likely would have helped people find meaning and hope in their lives.
Tucked away in a wing of the cathedral is the largest surviving chained library , where ancient texts and manuscripts are still kept under lock and key in their original chains. Books were rare and valuable assets in the medieval world, and so beginning in the Middle Ages, universities and cathedrals around Europe began tethering them to a shelf with a chain to safeguard the works. Today, the library and its chained contents are still open to the public.
The cathedral also boasts a copy of the Magna Carta. Only four of the original charters survive, and one is kept on display in the library of Hereford Cathedral. Today, those who are unable to visit Hereford can view the map online in an interactive gallery that explores its many myths, beasts and cities in vivid detail.
Text and images by Chris Griffiths; video and projections by Thomas Buttery. Charted History. Share using Email.
0コメント