Liber Floridus.  Ghent University Library, ms. 90, f. 241r.]]> Lamberti S. Audomari Canonici Liber Floridus : Codex authographus bibliothecae universitatis Gandavensis. Ed Alberto Derolez. Ghent: Story-Scientia]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Folio) AE2 .L36 1968]]> When you look at the circle in God’s left hand, what do you see? To medieval cartographers, this three-part circle represented the earth. If you imagine the west facing up, the three sections represent continents: Asia on the bottom, Europe on the top right, and Africa on the top left. Categorized by historians as a T-O map, this minimalist portrayal of the earth is quite common in medieval manuscripts. The maps would vary between complete simplicity – like the one you see – and striking complexity where the T-O design only provides skeletal structure. But in this case, the T-O map is a simple symbol in a larger image. An adjacent Latin inscription informs us that this is an image of God on the first day, creating the heavens and the earth. The T-O map in his left hand symbolizes the newly created earth. (Taylor Gee '16, Sarah Trachtenberg '17)

]]> The Morgan Crusader Bible, ed. Daniel H. Weiss. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, Luzern, 1998.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Folio) ND3355.5.K74 K74 1998]]> Mapamundi, the Catalan atlas of the year 1375, ed. Georges Grosjean. Zurich: Urs Graf Verlag GmbH, 1977.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) G1001 .C73 1977]]> The Canterbury Psalter, ed. M.R. James. London: P. Lund, Humpries & Co, 1935.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Books, Quarto) BX2033.C3 J3 1935]]> ]]> The Hereford World Map : Mappa Mundi. London: Folio Society, 2010.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Books, Quarto) G1034 .H47 2010]]> Tabula Peutingeriana: Codex Vindobonensis 324. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1976.]]> http://www.euratlas.net/cartogra/peutinger/
]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) G1026.P4 W4 1976]]> Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the highly schematized mappamundi in the Codex Urgellensis is its representation of mountains, rivers, and seas as the most important boundaries and geographical landmarks. The Mediterranean Sea dominates the center of the map and separates Europe on the left and Africa on the right. The Garden of Eden, signified by a rectangle containing the naked Adam and Eve accompanied by a serpent, is prominently featured and located conspicuously close to the holy city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the only colored landmark on an otherwise monochrome map, representing its Biblical significance. On the right side of the map is a fourth continent, sandwiched between two oceans. This unique representation of the known world covers two parchment pages, and provides the geographical context for the text in the manuscript, Beatus of Liébiana’s Commentary on the Apocalypse of Saint John.

Pat Chirathivat '16 and Nora Katz '16

]]> Beatus de Liébiana Codex Urgellensis, ed. Peter Klein. Madrid: Testimonio Compañia Editorial, 1997.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) BS2825.A2 B.37 1997]]> The coastlines are elaborately and meticulously drawn, their form matching the expectations of a modern viewer, with the names of coastal towns situated in a sequential order along the part of the land nearest to the coast. The interior of the land is filled with large drawings of castles representing cities, color-coded flags, various animals perhaps thought to be typical of the area, and well-known rivers and mountain systems. The mapmaker made a choice to depict these inland places as larger than their relative size to the land would be; as a result, the inland content grabs a reader’s attention much more quickly than the textual itinerary along the coasts. In addition to this contrast, a network of thin red and black lines, known to scholars as “rhumb lines,” spans the entire map in a systematic and precise fashion. These lines run through coasts and inner land features alike, either in a grid system also visible on the underside of the map, or in radial spokes beginning at various points on the grid. These things seem to indicate that the rhumb lines did have a use in the planning out of space on the map, but it is unclear what larger purpose they would serve to a reader of the map.

The prominence of these visuals combined with the systematic rhumb lines and the impressive display of coastal knowledge seem to indicate that the map and others like it were for a wealthy class who would not be using the the map for actual guidance, but to demonstrate geographical knowledge and power.
]]> Seekarte des Iehuda ben Zara : (Borgiano VII), ed. Arthur Dürst. Zürich: Belser Verlag, 1983.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections Map (Map, Rolled) G5672.M4 A23 1497]]> Four Maps of Great Britain, ed. J. P. Gilson. London: Oxford University Press, 1928.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Folio) GA793.3 .P3 1928]]> ]]> Carte Nautiche. Todi: ET&B, 1975.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Books) GA221 .V48 1975]]> ]]>