On The Map Part 4

Medieval Mappaemundi

Planning for exhibitions at North Lincolnshire Museum involves researching the collections. This is the third article in a series exploring the research that took place for the On the Map exhibition. The exhibition displayed maps from the Museum’s collection and showed the different ways maps have been used and created.

This blog will focus on Medieval world maps or mappaemundi. Unfortunately, North Lincolnshire Museum is not lucky enough to have any of these maps in the collection. They are rare with only a handful surviving today. However, they are an important part of the history of cartography and can help us understand more modern maps.

Mappaemundi were not designed for use in navigation, they were largely symbolic designed for display. Most of these types of map were drawn or have connections to England.

Mappaemundi were based on a T & O structure. They are circular in shape, the ‘O’, and the  three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa are divided by oceans in a T shape. They are orientated to have East at the top of the map, normally with Jerusalem at the centre.

Most mappaemundi were created by and for monasteries and are filled with religious symbolism. They often visually tell the story of Christianity. They show the world as God’s creation and allow the viewer to place themselves within it. For example, the Ebstorf mappaemundi is drawn on the body of Christ. At the top is his head, the sides his hands and the bottom his feet.

Medieval mappaemundi show us the power of maps to communicate and help form identities. Mappaemundi expressed the understanding and identities of medieval England. How people saw the world and their place within it. This is true of all maps, even modern maps created for navigational purposes are expressions of a certain world-view.