Reframing the World: The Materiality of Two Mappaemundi in BL, Add. MS 28681

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the field of medieval cartography, the Psalter World Map (BL, Add. MS 28681, fol. 9r) has come to stand in scholarship as an exemplar of the medieval world view. While the World Map has received wide attention, its relationship to the List Map on the verso and the psalter manuscript as a whole has been less discussed. A close material analysis of folio 9 reveals that the two maps were pasted into a frame which had been cut out of the folio. Thus, the maps were constructed separately from the psalter text itself. Moreover, a codicological examination of the first ten folios of the manuscript shows multiple moments of rearrangement and intervention, reinforcing the importance of material analysis in the study of maps and manuscripts. The new information concerning the insertion of the World Map and the List Map into folio 9 opens up unexplored possibilities regarding their place of origin and dating since they can no longer be tied to the 1262 date of the manuscript.