Hereford Map Research Articles

In a Circle: The Hereford Map as a ‘Cosmic Clock’

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.

A Critical Companion to English Mappae Mundi of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

A Critical Companion to English Mappae Mundi of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

Otherness on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300)

This study examines the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) in relation to modern theoretical concepts of Otherness and marginality to expose disjunctions between medieval and modern ideologies. As an authoritative synthesis of Classical geographical learning and Christian theological beliefs, the landmasses, islands, and waterways of the Hereford Map are populated by hundreds of tiny icons and inscriptions that represent the world’s cities, biblical and mythological characters, animals, birds, monsters, and more. Among these are many identifiable Others, whose cartographical locations do not fit easily into modern theoretical frameworks but rather signal more complex relationships between Us and Them, and between centre and periphery; especially in England, where the Map was made and displayed. Moreover, Otherness on the Hereford Map is performed not only by the usual actors - the so-called Monstrous Races and non-Christian outgroups-but also by the divine personages dispensing justice in the celestial space depicted at its summit. My analysis of selected imagery reveals that certain of the Map’s figures and places commonly identified by modern critics as marginal in fact lay at the conceptual centre of medieval Christian identity. Moving away from the centre - margins paradigm, I also examine how medieval cartographical strategies of alignment, juxtaposition, and directionality enhanced the work’s didactic value for medieval pilgrims, and I identify examples of lessons that were retrievable with or without the assistance of cathedral guides acting as interpretative intermediaries. I conclude that the presence of Others on the Hereford Map helped medieval viewers locate themselves in its geographical spaces and in its Christian worldview, which suggests that the theoretical concept of Otherness remains a viable tool for expanding our understanding of the cultural and ideological complexities of medieval mappae mundi.

Sven Dupré. Review of "Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English Mappa Mundi, c. 1300" by Marcia Kupfer.

Sven Dupré. Review of "Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English Mappa Mundi, c. 1300" by Marcia Kupfer.

Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English Mappa Mundi, c.1300, by Marcia Kupfer

Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English <i>Mappa Mundi</i>, c.1300, by Marcia Kupfer

Art and Optics in the Hereford Map. An English Mappa Mundi

Art and Optics in the Hereford Map. An English Mappa Mundi

Marcia Kupfer. Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English Mappa Mundi, c. 1300.

Marcia Kupfer. Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English Mappa Mundi, c. 1300.

England is the World and the World is England

Medieval Christians arguably lived in a ‘real’ world – a tangible place in which they lived, worked, loved, hated, and died – but through a process of world-building continually reconstructed it anew around themselves as the mythical land they called ‘Christendom.’ This was predicated first on reconceptualizing and then ultimately on removing (or attempting to remove) the non-Christians in their midst. In twelfth- and thirteenth-century England, Jews were the prime focus of such efforts, demonized and monsterized, and then expelled en masse. Still, it seems that every work that seeks to reconstruct England by othering Jews also undercuts its efforts by collapsing differences in time and space, so that England becomes everywhere, and the present moment becomes everywhen. This brief essay will consist of a whirlwind tour through the Hereford Map, tracing various vectors along its buckling surface, to and from that small, marginalized protuberance at the lower-left corner of creation – Britain.

The sea monsters in the Madrid manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography (Biblioteca Nacional, MS Res. 255)

The sea monsters in the Madrid manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography (Biblioteca Nacional, MS Res. 255)

Maps of medieval thought: the Hereford paradigm

Part I The Circle as a Conceptual Device The Cosmological Wheel Part II The Hereford Map as a Conceptual Device The Frame as time, The Medieval Audience Part III The Hereford Map and its Worlds The World of Animals, The World of Strange and Monstrous Races, The World of Alexander, The World of the Bible and the Crusades Part IV The Hereford Map in Cartographic Context A Comparison of Frameworks

The Hereford Map: A Transcription and Translation of the Legends with Commentary

1Hereford Cathedral The Hereford Map: A Transcription and Translation of the Legends with Commentary Scott D.Westrem TurnhoutBrepols 2001lxi + 476€ 55

The Hereford Map: Its Author(s), Two Scenes and a Border

The Hereford Map is drawn upon a single pentangular skin of very high quality and, presumably, expense. It measures some 5′2″ by 4′4″ at its longest and widest points, and has, in addition to the world map from which it takes its name, a number of ornamented borders, inscriptions in Latin and Anglo-Norman, and illuminated scenes. The map thus has a great many claims to the attention of medieval historians, art historians and linguists, but I would single out three. Firstly, as a result of the loss of the Ebstorf Map, the Hereford Map is now die largest and most elaborate medieval mappa mundi known to have survived. Secondly, it is still one of the most difficult there is of the genre definitively to date, place and understand; this in the face of over more than one hundred and fifty years of effort on the part of a whole series of accomplished scholars and cartographers, effort of which the recent short and penetrating book by Professor Harvey is a triumphant example. Thirdly, though the map is rightly now regarded by the Hereford Cathedral Chapter as one of its greatest treasures, and is quite beautifully cared for and displayed in Hereford, we are still all a little hazy about how it got there in the first place. Professor Harvey suspects it may originally have been made in Lincoln, a suspicion to which I might perhaps now bring a little additional support. But if it was made in Lincoln, how, then, did it come to Hereford, when did it come and, perhaps most importantly of all, why?

MEDIEVAL DISTORTIONS: THE PROJECTIONS OF ANCIENT MAPS

ABSTRACT Estimates of the map projection employed for an ancient map is a prerequisite for a variety of other studies. The preliminary evaluation presented here has yielded empirical equations for the Hereford map and illustrated the agreement of a Portolan chart with an oblique Mercator projection.

New Light on the Hereford Map: Discussion

The Chairman (Mr. R. A. Skelton): Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen. This afternoon Mr. Crone is going to present a further instalment of his research into the sources and character of the Hereford Map, on which he prepared the memoir to accompany the Society's facsimile. This Society has always exacted from its Librarian a good deal of versatility. Mr. Crone's predecessor, Edward Heawood, claimed that something from his pen appeared in every issue of the Geographical Journal for thirtyfive years, and this must have covered a great range of subjects. Mr. Crone similarly may be called upon to evaluate a modern atlas or thematic map, or an edition of a classical geographer, or a medieval map, and to each of these diverse tasks he brings thorough knowledge, perceptive judgement and workmanlike presentation. His study of the Hereford Map, published in 1954, penetrated deeply into the mind ofthe medieval cartographer and his use of sources. It threw a new light on our under? standing of medieval mapmaking, by emphasizing the continuity of the cartographic tradition from the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages to the dawn of the Renaissance, and it made clear that medieval maps were not merely anthologies of mythical lore or picture books of monsters, but also repositories of contemporary factual geographical information. This afternoon he continues his examination of this medieval cartographer and his sources.

New Light on the Hereford Map

The mappa mundi in Hereford Cathedral has periodically attracted the attention of scholars since the occasion, 135 years ago, when it was discussed at the first meeting of the Royal Geographical Society. It has always been recognized that as a work of art embodying many aspects of religious and secular life in the Middle Ages it is of great interest and value. Its true worth as a cartographic monument, however, has only gained recognition gradually. Opinions of its interest as a map indeed have not been very high, if we except the work of the German scholar, K. Miller, at the turn of the last century. At first, terms such as 'curious' and 'grotesque' were applied to it. Even as acute a scholar as the late Sir Cyril Beazley could write of the 'monstrosities of Hereford and Ebstorf', and of their 'complete futility'. Regarding the names: Phillot found it difficult to account for the choice, and remarked that 'the general impression . . . is one of inaccuracy, carelessness and ignorance', and Edward Lynam, though generally more sympathetic, regards the topography as 'comically misshapen'. A. R. Hinks dismissed it rather summarily, calling it a diagram rather than a map, with 'places more or less in correct relation to their neighbours, but entirely out of scale, and no attempt at correct outline even in the Mediterranean, where the portolans are so accurate'. In a recent publication from Hereford, the writer describes the religious signi? ficance of the mappa mundi at some length, but dismisses its geographical value as negligible. This latter criticism partly arises from the fact that he apparently regards the map as the work solely of the early fourteenth century (Moir, 1964). In recent years there has been a change of attitude. This has resulted from the destruction of the only medieval world map to rival it in size and importance?the Ebstorf Map of c. 1240, which drew attention to the uniqueness of the survivor. Then in connection with the international bibliography of early maps before 1500, much work has recently been done in this field, and the important place which the Hereford Map occupies in medieval cartography has come to be recognized (Destombes, 1964). This paper is an attempt to extract all the information in regard to its compilation and history which the map can yield, and to demonstrate some of the conclusions which can be drawn from it. It has grown out of the monograph which accompanied the Society's collotype reproduction, very nearly full scale, published in 1953, and began largely as an attempt to determine why these particular townnames are found on the map. I deal first with some of the elements in the framework, outside the map proper. The most conspicuous feature is the very fine representation of the Last Judge? ment which surmounts the whole (Plate Ia). This theme is a late medieval develop? ment, and was popular especially in carvings in stone, of which there are numerous examples, e.g. at Rheims and V^zelay. I have not, however, been able to trace the 16 +

The Mappa Mundi of Richard of Haldingham at Hereford

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Mappa Mundi of Richard of Haldingham at HerefordN. Denholm-YoungN. Denholm-Young Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 32, Number 2Apr., 1957 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2849121 Views: 39Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1957 The Mediaeval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Valerie I. J. Flint The Hereford Map: Its Author(s), Two Scenes and a Border, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 8 (Feb 2009): 19–44.https://doi.org/10.2307/3679287 I. Bernard Cohen , and Katharine Strelsky Eighty-Third Critical Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (To 1 January 1958), Isis 49, no.22 (Oct 2015): 179–296.https://doi.org/10.1086/348672

The Hereford Map in Facsimile: Review

The Hereford Map in Facsimile: Review

Men, Machines and History

During The Present Century There Has Appeared A New Kind Of History, Concerned Not With Parts But With The Whole Of Human History. There Were, Of Course, Before This, Many Attempts To Write' Universal History'; But They Consisted Merely In Lumping Together In A Single Continuous Narrative Condensed Histories Of The Chief Countries Of The Old World. This Synthetic Or Accretive Method Has The Same Defects When Concerned With The Sequence Of Time As It Has When Concerned With Space. You Cannot Make A Correct Map Of The World Or Of Any Part Of It Simply By Sticking Together On A Single Sheet The Plans Of Separate Portions Surveyed Independently By Different People, With No Comprehensive Framework Binding Together The Whole Area. Nor, To Vary The Metaphor, Is A Cathedral Constructed By Putting Several Parish Churches Together Beneath One Roof. The New History Is Related To The Old Universal Histories Exactly As Is A Modern Map Of The World To Such Medieval Concoctions As The Hereford Map.