Cosmas Indicopleustes' Map (6th century) Around 550
Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote the copiously illustrated
Christian Topography, a work partly based on his personal experiences as a merchant on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the early 6th century. Though his
cosmogony is refuted by modern science, he has given a historic description of India and
Sri Lanka during the 6th century, which is invaluable to historians. Cosmas seems to have personally visited the Kingdom of
Axum in modern
Ethiopia and
Eritrea, as well as
India and
Sri Lanka. In 522 CE, he visited the
Malabar Coast (South India). A major feature of his
Topography is Cosmas' worldview that the
world is
flat, and that the
heavens form the shape of a box with a curved lid, a view he took from unconventional interpretations of
Christian scripture. Cosmas aimed to prove that pre-Christian geographers had been wrong in asserting that the earth was spherical and that it was in fact modelled on the
Tabernacle, the house of worship described to
Moses by God during the Jewish Exodus from Egypt.
Isidore of Sevilla's T and O map (c. 636) from a 12th-century copy of
Etymologiae The medieval
T and O maps originate with the description of the world in the
Etymologiae of
Isidore of Seville (died 636). This qualitative and conceptual type of medieval
cartography represents only the top-half of a spherical Earth. It was presumably tacitly considered a convenient
projection of the inhabited portion of the world known in Roman and medieval times (that is, the
northern temperate half of the globe). The
T is the
Mediterranean, dividing the three
continents,
Asia,
Europe and
Africa, and the
O is the surrounding
Ocean.
Jerusalem was generally represented in the center of the map. Asia was typically the size of the other two continents combined. Because the sun rose in the east, Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was generally depicted as being in Asia, and Asia was situated at the top portion of the map.
Albi Mappa Mundi (8th century) The is a medieval map of the world, included in a manuscript of the second half of the 8th century, preserved in the old collection of the library Pierre-Amalric in
Albi, France. This manuscript comes from the chapter library of the Sainte-Cécile
Albi Cathedral. The Albi Mappa Mundi was inscribed in October 2015 in the
Memory of the World Programme of
UNESCO. The manuscript bearing the card contains 77 pages. It is named in the eighteenth century "
Miscellanea" (Latin word meaning "collection"). This collection contains 22 different documents, which had educational functions. The manuscript, a
Parchment probably made from a goat or sheep skin, is in a very good state of preservation. The map itself is 27 cm high by 22.5 wide. It represents 23 countries on 3 continents and mentions several cities, islands, rivers and seas. The known world is represented in the form of a horseshoe, opening at the level of the Strait of Gibraltar, and surrounding the Mediterranean, with the Middle East at the top, Europe on the left and North Africa on the right.
Ibn Hawqal's map (10th century) Ibn Hawqal was an Arab scientist of the 10th century who developed a world map, based on his own travel experience and probably the works of Ptolemy. Another such cartographer was
Istakhri.
Anglo-Saxon Cotton World Map (c. 1040) This map appears in a copy of a classical work on geography, the Latin version by
Priscian of the
Periegesis, that was among the manuscripts in the
Cotton library (
MS. Tiberius B.V., fol. 56v), now in the
British Library. It is not intended purely as an illustration to that work, for it contains much material gathered from other sources, including some which would have been the most up-to-date available, although it is based on a distant Roman original (similar to the source of [//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Isidore-Seville-mappamundi.jpg another 11th-century world map], illustrating an edition of Isidore of Seville) – on which the network of lines appears to indicate the boundaries of
imperial provinces. The date of drawing was formerly estimated at CE, based on suggested links to the journey of
Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury from Rome but more recent analysis indicates that, although the information was revised about that time, the map was probably drawn between 1025 and 1050. Like the later map by al-Idrisi (see below) this map is clearly outside the largely symbolic early medieval mapping tradition, but equally it is not based on the famous Ptolemaic co-ordinate system. East is at the top, but Jerusalem is not in the centre, and the Garden of Eden is nowhere to be seen. Unusually, all the waterways of Africa, not just the Red Sea, are depicted in red (mountains are green). The depiction of the far East is ambitious, including India and Taprobane (Sri Lanka) – the latter depicted according to the exaggerated classical conception of its size. Unsurprisingly, Britain itself is depicted in some detail. Great Britain, unusually by medieval standards, is shown as one island, albeit with an exaggerated Cornish promontory, and
Mona, Ireland and the many Scottish islands are all indicated. The cartographer is slightly confused by Iceland, depicting it both by a version of its classical name 'Thule', north-west of Britain, and as 'Island', logically linked with Scandinavia. An open-access high-resolution digital image of the map with place and name annotations is included among the thirteen medieval maps of the world edited in the
Virtual Mappa project.
Beatus Mappa Mundi (1050) Beatus of Liébana (c. 730–798) was an
Asturian monk and
theologian. He corresponded with
Alcuin, and took part in the
Adoptionist controversy, criticizing the views of
Felix of Urgel and
Elipandus of Toledo. He is best remembered today as the author of his
Commentary on the Apocalypse, published in 776. An illustrated manuscript known as the
Saint-Sever Beatus, featuring the
Commentary, was produced around 1050 at the Abbey of Saint-Sever, Aquitaine, France. It contains one of the oldest Christian world maps as an illustration of the
Commentary. Although the original manuscript and map has not survived, copies of the map survive in several of the extant manuscripts.
Mahmud al-Kashgari's Map (1072) 's
Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk Kara-Khanid scholar
Mahmud al-Kashgari compiled a
Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk (
Compendium of the languages of the Turks) in the 11th century. The manuscript is illustrated with a 'Turkocentric' world map, oriented with east (or rather, perhaps, the direction of midsummer sunrise) on top, centered on the ancient city of
Balasagun in what is now
Kyrgyzstan, showing the
Caspian Sea to the north, and
Iraq,
Armenia,
Yemen and
Egypt to the west,
China and
Japan to the east,
Hindustan,
Kashmir,
Gog and Magog to the south. Conventional symbols are used throughout – blue lines for rivers, red lines for mountain ranges etc. The world is shown as encircled by the ocean. The map is now kept at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
Al-Idrisi's Tabula Rogeriana (1154) '' (1154) with south up. The Arab geographer,
Muhammad al-Idrisi, incorporated the knowledge of
Africa, the
Indian Ocean and the
Far East gathered by
Arab merchants and explorers with the information inherited from the classical geographers to create the most accurate map of the world at the time. It remained the most accurate world map for the next three centuries. The
Tabula Rogeriana was drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154 for the
Norman King
Roger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, written in Arabic, shows the
Eurasian continent in its entirety, but only shows the
northern part of the African continent.
Ebstorf Mappa Mundi (1235) , original , but since destroyed by wartime bombing. The Ebstorf Map was an example of a European
mappa mundi, made by
Gervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man as
Gervase of Tilbury, some time in the thirteenth century. It was a very large map: painted on 30 goatskins sewn together, it measured about . The head of Christ was depicted at the top of the map, with his hands on either side and his feet at the bottom. The Map was a greatly elaborated version of the medieval tripartite or
T and O map; it was centred on Jerusalem with east at the top of the map. It represented
Rome in the shape of a lion, and had an evident interest in the distribution of bishoprics. The original was destroyed in the bombing of
Hanover in 1943 during World War II, but some photographs and colour copies remain.
Hereford Mappa Mundi (1300) , The
Hereford Mappa Mundi is a detailed mappa mundi based on the
T and O map style, dating to . The map is signed by one "Richard of
Haldingham or
Lafford". Drawn on a single sheet of
vellum, it measures . The writing is in black ink, with additional red and gold, and blue or green for water (with the
Red Sea coloured red). The captions demonstrate clearly the multiple functions of these large medieval maps, conveying a mass of information on Biblical subjects and general history, in addition to geography.
Jerusalem is drawn at the centre of the circle,
east is on top, showing the
Garden of Eden in a circle at the edge of the world (1).
Great Britain is drawn at the northwestern border (bottom left, 22 & 23). Curiously, the labels for
Africa and
Europe are reversed, with Europe scribed in red and gold as 'Africa', and vice versa. An open-access high-resolution digital image of the map with more than 1,000 place and name annotations is included among the thirteen medieval maps of the world edited in the
Virtual Mappa project.
Pietro Vesconte's World Map (1321) 's world map, 1321 Italian geographer
Pietro Vesconte was a pioneer of the field of the
portolan chart. His nautical charts are among the earliest to map the
Mediterranean and
Black Sea regions accurately. He also produced progressively more accurate depictions of the coastlines of northern Europe. In his world map of 1321 he brought his experience as a maker of portolans to bear; the map introduced a previously unheard of accuracy to the mappa mundi genre. The world map, as well as a map of the
Holy Land and plan of
Acre and
Jerusalem were made for inclusion in
Marino Sanuto's
Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis.
Catalan World Atlas (1375) The Catalan World Atlas was produced by the
Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to
Cresques Abraham. It has been in the royal library of France (now the
Bibliothèque nationale de France) since the time of
Charles V. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded down the middle, painted in various colours including gold and silver. The first two leaves contain texts in the
Catalan language covering
cosmography,
astronomy, and
astrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasize the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night. Unlike many other nautical charts, the Catalan Atlas is read with the north at the bottom. As a result of this the maps are oriented from left to right, from the Far East to the Atlantic. The first two leaves, forming the oriental portion of the Catalan Atlas, illustrate numerous religious references as well as a synthesis of medieval mappae mundi (Jerusalem located close to the centre) and the travel literature of the time, notably
The Travels of Marco Polo and the
Travels of
Sir John Mandeville. Many Indian and Chinese cities can be identified.
"Da Ming Hunyi Tu" world map (after 1389) map The
Da Ming Hunyi Tu () world map, likely made in the late 14th or the 15th century, shows China at the centre and Europe, half-way round the globe, depicted very small and horizontally compressed at the edge. The coast of Africa is also mapped from an Indian Ocean perspective, showing the Cape of Good Hope area. It is believed that maps of this type were made since about the 1320s, but all earlier specimens have been lost, so the earliest survivor is the elaborate, colourful
Da Ming Hunyi Tu, painted on of silk.
Gangnido world map (1402) world map of Joseon (Korea) (c. 1479–1485) is a world map and historical map of China, made in
Korea in 1402, although extant copies, all in Japan, were created much later. It plays a key role in reconstructing the content of the now-lost 14th-century Chinese map of the world named
Shengjiao Guangbei Tu, which was based on Chinese cartographic techniques with additional input from western sources, via Islamic scholarship in the
Mongol Empire. It also demonstrates the post-Mongol era stagnation of East Asian cartography as geographic information about the West was not updated until the introduction of European knowledge in the 16th and 17th centuries. Superficially similar to the
Da Ming Hun Yi Tu (which has been less well known in the West because it is kept in closed archive storage), the Gangnido shows its Korean origin in the enlargement of that country, and incorporates vastly improved (though wrongly positioned, scaled and oriented) mapping of Japan. Elsewhere, the map betrays a decorative rather than practical purpose, particularly in the portrayal of river systems, which form unnatural loops rarely seen on Chinese maps. Nonetheless, it is considered as "superior to anything produced in Europe prior to the end of the fifteenth century".
De Virga world map (1411–1415) (1411–1415), which disappeared in the 1930s The
De Virga world map was made by Albertinus de Virga between 1411 and 1415. Albertin de Virga, a Venetian, is also known for a 1409 map of the Mediterranean, also made in Venice. The world map is circular, drawn on a piece of
parchment . It consists of the map itself, about in diameter, and an extension containing a calendar and two tables.
Bianco's world map (1436) (1436) Andrea Bianco's atlas of 1436 comprises ten leaves of
vellum, measuring , in an 18th-century binding. The first leaf contains a description of the
Rule of marteloio for resolving the course, with the "circle and square", two tables and two other diagrams. The next eight leaves contain various navigation charts. The ninth leaf contains a circular world map measuring in circumference. And the final leaf contains the Ptolemaic world map on Ptolemy's first projection, with graduation. Some believe Bianco's maps were the first to correctly portray the coast of Florida, as a macro-peninsula is attached to a large island labeled
Antillia. Bianco also collaborated with
Fra Mauro on the Fra Mauro world map of 1459.
Borgia world map (early 15th century) (early 15th century) Mainly a decoration piece, the Borgia map is a world map made sometime in the early 15th century, and engraved on a metal plate.
Genoese map (1457) of 1457, Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence The
Genoese map of 1457 is a
world map that relied extensively on the account of the traveller to Asia
Niccolo da Conti, rather than the usual source of
Marco Polo. The author is unknown, but is a more modern development than the
Fra Mauro world map, less intricate and complete, with fairly good proportions given to each of the continents. The map depicts the main landmarks of the time, and figures such as the legendary
Prester John in Africa, the Great Khan in China, "Xilam" (
Ceylon) and Sumatra, and the design of a three-masted European ship in the
Indian Ocean, something which had not occurred, suggesting that a sea-lane was a possibility. The Americas are not included yet, as
Columbus returned to Spain no sooner than March 1493. It shows a rather enlarged Eurasian continent and an empty ocean between Europe and Asia. It includes the mythical
Saint Brendan's Island. Japan and Asian islands are disproportionately large. The idea to call the globe "apple" may be related to the
Reichsapfel ("Imperial Apple",
Globus cruciger) which was also kept in Nuremberg along with the
Imperial Regalia (
Reichskleinodien). In 1907, it was transferred to the
Germanic Museum in
Nuremberg. ==After 1492==