Hereford Mappa Mundi

De wereld gezien door de ogen rond 1400 met Jerusalem als centrum en talrijke gegeven heden die nog stammen uit de Romeinse tijd. Een tijdsbeeld van een vastgepinde christelijke werkelijkheid die bepaald werd door boeken en niet door nieuwe waarnemingen, laat staan door denken. 

“Hereford Cathedral is home to the Hereford Mappa Mundi, one of the world’s unique medieval treasures. Measuring 1.59 x 1.34 metres (5’2” by 4’4”), the map is constructed on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin). Scholars believe it was made around the year 1300 and shows the history, geography and destiny of humanity as it was understood in Christian Europe in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

The inhabited part of the world as it was known then, roughly equivalent to Europe, Asia and North Africa, is mapped within a Christian framework. Jerusalem is in the centre, and east is at the top. East, where the sun rises, was where medieval Christians looked for the second coming of Christ. The British Isles is at the bottom on the left.”

In medieval books of beasts (bestiaries), the unicorn is often described as a small but fierce creature that can fight elephants. Despite this ferocity, though, bestiaries tell how the unicorn could be overcome by an innocent maiden, who could calm his wildness so that he laid his head in her lap and became harmless. Some bestiaries link the unicorn to Christ. On our map the unicorn is called a monoceros. 

echt een tijdsdenken en niet meer mijn waarnemingen dekkend van ontmoetingen in de 20ste en 21ste eeuw

Wil je de map zien, kijk eens op:

https://www.themappamundi.co.uk/mappa-mundi/