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ABSTRACT
This article presents an alternative approach to reading the temporal layer of medieval mappaemundi by comparing its shape to that of a sundial rather than superimposing a vertical chronological axis on the map. The possible uses of introducing such an analogy are discussed with regard to the late thirteenth-century Hereford world map. While this article does not seek to override established findings, it argues that adding this new interpretation to the existing research could potentially enrich our understanding of the ties between time and space in medieval cartography.
Cet article propose une nouvelle interprétation du contenu temporel d’une mappemonde médiévale en comparant sa forme à celle d’un cadran solaire plutôt qu’en lui superposant un axe chronologique vertical. Les possibles avantages de l’introduction d’une telle analogie sont discutés en ce qui concerne la mappemonde de Hereford de la fin du XIIIe siècle. Sans prétendre remplacer les résultats établis par la recherche, l’article soutient que l’ajout de cette nouvelle interprétation pourrait potentiellement enrichir notre compréhension des liens entre le temps et l’espace dans la cartographie médiévale.
In dem Beitrag wird eine alternative Möglichkeit angeboten, die Zeitebene in einer mittelalterlichen Karte zu lesen: anstatt eine vertikale chronologische Abfolge anzunehmen, wird die Form der Karte mit einer Sonnenuhr verglichen. Die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten einer solchen Analogie werden für das späte 13. Jahrhundert am Beispiel der Hereford-Karte dargestellt. Die Autorin möchte mit dieser Interpretationsmöglichkeit nicht die bestehenden Erkenntnisse bestreiten, sondern vielmehr eine neue Sicht hinzufügen, um die Verbindungen von Zeit und Raum in mittelalterlichen Karten in vielfältigerer Weise zu verstehen.
Este artículo presenta un enfoque alternativo para leer la capa temporal de un mapamundi medieval, a partir de la comparación de su forma con la de un reloj de sol, en lugar de superponer un eje cronológico vertical en el mapa. Los posibles usos en la instrucción de esta analogía se proponen en relación con el mapamundi de Hereford de finales del siglo XIII. Aunque este artículo no pretende invalidar las conclusiones ya establecidas, sostiene que añadir esta nueva interpretación a la investigación existente podría enriquecer potencialmente nuestra comprensión de los vínculos entre el tiempo y el espacio en la cartografía medieval.
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no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 As David Woodward says, the information on a mappamundi is ‘a projection of history onto a geographical framework’. David Woodward, ‘Medieval mappaemundi’, in The History of Cartography, vol. 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. J. B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987), 326. For further reading see Jerry Brotton, A History of the World in Twelve Maps (London, Penguin Books, 2012), 102–9; Evelyn Edson, Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World (London, British Library, 1998), especially 139–44; Evelyn Edson, ‘The medieval world view: contemplating the mappamundi’, History Compass 8–9 (2010): 507–8.
2 This article is based on an idea I briefly developed in my unpublished doctoral thesis, Średniowieczne imago mundi. Aksjosemiotyczna analiza mapy świata z katedry w Hereford (Medieval Imago Mundi. Axiosemiotic Analysis of the World Map from the Hereford Cathedral) (University of Wrocław, 2016).
3 Among others, see Brotton, History of the World (note 1), 102–3, 107; and Edson, Mapping Time and Space (note 1), 144.
4 See Jack Keilo, Hereford Map, Jerusalem Again as Centre and the Translatio Imperii, 04 June 2014 (Centrici, https://centrici.hypotheses.org/584), accessed on 9 June 2021. The presence of this theme is also mentioned in Brotton, History of the World (see note 1), 103–6; and Edson, ‘Medieval world view’ (see note 1), 508.
5 Naomi Reed Kline, A Wheel of Memory: The Hereford Mappa Mundi (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2001), CD-ROM.
6 Jacques Le Goff, Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1980), 48–49.
7 For convenience, I shall be using a horizontal sundial for reference, not only because it is fairly simple and has been known since Antiquity (in its crudest form it could consist of a vertical element with a plate drawn around it), but also because it is visually more similar to a mappamundi, which makes it more suitable for the purposes of this exercise. Therefore, 12 o’clock would, in this case, mean noon (in a vertical sundial, the same point on the plate would mark midnight, that is, of course, if not for the lack of sunlight in the night time).
8 Asa Mittman, Maps and Monsters in Medieval England (New York, Routledge, 2006), 50.
9 Katarzyna Zalewska-Lorkiewicz claims that the depictions of the exotic tribes, particularly the monstrous races, constitute the biggest group of images among the topics present in illustrated mappaemundi in general. Marina Münkler cites this feature of medieval maps as the main reason factoring in their dismissal by modern historians: ‘another—the main factor—was the frequent depiction on mappae mundi … of monstrous people. While not present on all medieval maps of the world, they were almost never absent from the borders of any that were not merely presenting a simple T-O scheme but were furnished with many cartographic illustrations. … For this reason, historians of cartography have long considered the mappae mundi as deeply deficient … ’. See respectively Katarzyna Zalewska-Lorkiewicz, Ilustrowane mappae mundi jako obraz świata. Średniowieczne i początek okresu nowożytnego (Warszawa, DiG, 1997), 119; and Marina Münkler, ‘Experiencing strangeness: monstrous people on the edge of the Earth as depicted on medieval mappae mundi’, Medieval History Journal 5 (2002): 195–222, at 195–96.
10 Among others, see Mittman, Maps and Monsters (note 8); Münkler, ‘Experiencing strangeness’ (note 9), 195–222; and John Block Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1981).
11 It is one of the Hereford map’s curiosities that it includes the dog-headed tribe twice, in two different spots, following two different literary traditions. According to Scott D. Westrem, the notion of the dog-heads living in the far-eastern edge of the world, near India, can be traced back as far as Cresias (early fifth century bc) and is probably fused with the story of Indian giants common in the descriptions of the adventures of Alexander the Great. This location of dog-headed giants (see , no. 3) is also mentioned by Pliny and Isidore of Seville, among others. The northern-European placement (no. 8, Cynocephales) follows Aethicus Ister. For more detailed information see Scott D. Westrem, The Hereford Map. A Transcription and Translation of the Legends with Commentary (Turnhout, Brepols, 2001), 40 (legend no. 80), and 186 (legend no. 442). The second location also ties in with the fascinating story of so-called Epistola de cynocephalis (Letter on dog-heads), a 9th-century text by Ratramnus of Corbie, in which he answers the missionary’s question on whether the dog-headed people that have been rumoured to live in Scandinavia can be evangelized. For an English translation of the letter, see Paul Edward Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: A Reader, 2nd ed. (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004), 452–55. All legends on the Hereford map are quoted from Westrem, The Hereford Map (op. cit.). The features mentioned in the text are described in the following legends: Griste, legend no. 443, 187; Turks of Terraconta: ‘the Turks … of the lineage of Gog and Magog, a barbarous and filthy people who eat flesh of youths and miscarried fetuses’, legend no. 302, 137; Scitotauri, legend no. 308, 139; Scithari (Scythians): ‘Their customs are [even] fiercer. They live in caves; they make drinking cups out of the heads of their enemies (not of friends, as the Essendones do). They love combat’, legend no. 306, 139; Essendones: ‘The Essendones of Scythia live here, whose custom is to accompany their parents’ funerals with songs and, having assembled a group of friends, to tear into their parents’ bodies with their teeth and to make a solemn feast of animal meat mixed with human flesh, believing it more honorable to be consumed by each other than by worms’, legend no. 212, 101.
12 ‘This is believed to be a river from hell, because it enters the sea boiling, cascading from the Umbrosi mountains, and here gapes the mouth of Gehenna, it is said’. Quoted from Westrem, The Hereford Map (see note 11), legend no. 213, 101. The placement of the Inclusi tribe is curiously mirroring the placement of the drawing of the dragons on the southeastern quarter of Asia (, no. 4).
13 Westrem, The Hereford Map (see note 11), legends no. 141–142, 69–71.
14 Ibid., legend no. 94, 47. As Westrem notes, the name ‘Scythia’ is treated quite loosely by medieval writers. On the Hereford map, it is mentioned several times in relation to different tribes and locations, which leads Westrem to conclude that in the case of this specific mappamundi, Scythia is ‘synonymous with all of northern Asia’ with more explicit ‘units’ ‘apportioned to ethnic groups and found throughout the north’ (commentary on legend no. 40, 22).
15 Münkler, analysing the placement of these happy, self-sufficient races on both the Hereford and the Ebstorf maps, says, ‘Their spatial proximity to paradise constitutes a symbolic linkage: contented, peaceful, apparently untouched by original sin, they represented as it were paradisiacal life-forms, making the loss of the earthly paradise and its consequences within the terrestrial sphere all the more visible’ (Münkler, ‘Experiencing strangeness’ (see note 9), 220).
16 The Hereford map is also adorned with other drawings on its border, including the crowning scene of the Last Judgement, but I shall not discuss them here, since I consider these illustrations beyond the rim of the map a separate issue deserving of its own article, one that would need to draw into focus entirely new contexts. For further readings on that topic see, for example, Valerie I. J. Flint, ‘The Hereford map: its author(s), two scenes and a border’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 8:8 (1988): 19–44.
17 Vanitas (vanity, emptiness, futility). This is a reference to the biblical phrase Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas (‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’; Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8), a motif in art and literature that emphasizes the ephemerality of life and the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures. Works focused on this theme are usually highly symbolic.
18 Summa in the medieval literary genre serves didactic purposes. A summa (or summula—a sum or total) was intended to be a compendium providing a summary of the field’s knowledge or even to serve as a kind of encyclopaedia.
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Maria Magdalena Morawiecka
▸ Dr Maria Magdalena Morawiecka is a freelance academic. E-mail: [email protected].