Medieval Maps: Introduction and Overview

Introduction to Medieval Maps and Mapping

Contributors:
Dr. Helen Davies | Chris Rouse | Dr. Tobias Hrynick | Dr. John Wyatt Greenlee

Bagrow, Leo. Die Geschichte der Kartographie. Berlin: Safari-Verlag, 1951.

———. History of Cartography. Revised by R. A. Skelton. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963; enlarged and reprinted Chicago: Precedent Publishing, 1964.

Bagrow, Leo and R. A. Skelton. Meister der Kartographie. Berlin: Safari-Verlag, 1963

Barber, Peter M., and Michelle P. Brown. “The Aslake world map.” Imago Mundi 44, no. 1 (1992): 24-44.

Beazley, C. Raymond. The Dawn of Modern Cartography, Part II, A History of Exploration and Geographical Science from the Close of the Ninth to the Middle of the Thirteenth Century (c. A. D. 900-1260). London: John Murray, 1901.

Brady, Linda. Writing the Welsh Borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England. Artes Liberales. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017.

Brotton, Jerry. Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World. London: Reaktion Books, 1997.

Boulton, Meg, Jane Hawkes and Heidi Stoner, eds. Place and Space in the Medieval World. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Capello, Carlo. Il Mappamondo Medioevale Di Vercelli (1191–1218?). Torino: Fanton, 1976.

Chekin, Leonid S. Northern Eurasia in Medieval Cartography: Inventory, Text, Translation and Commentary. Turnhout: Brepols, 2006.

Dalché, Patrick Gautier. “L’Heritage Antique de la Cartographie Medievale: les Problemes et les Acquis.” In Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods, edited by Richard J. A. Talbert and Richard W. Unger , 29–66. Boston: Brill, 2008.

———. “Maps, Travel and Exploration in the Middle Ages: Some Reflections about Anachronism.” Translated by Patricia Stirnemann. The Historical Review/La Revue Historique 12 (2015): 143–62.

De Craecker-Dussart, Christiane. “La cartographie médiévale: d’importantes mises au point.” Le Moyen Age 116, no. 1 (2010): 165–75. (link)

Destombes, Marcel, ed. Mappemondes A.D. 1200-1500. For the Commission des Cartes Anciennes de l’Union Geographique Internationale. Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964.

Dilke, Oswald Ashton Wentworth. Greek and Roman Maps. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998

Edson, Evelyn. “Mapping the Middle Ages: The Imaginary and the Real Universe of the Mappaemundi.” In Monsters, Marvels and Miracles: Imaginary Journeys and Landscapes in the Middle Ages, edited by Leif Søndergaard and Rasmus Thorning Hansen, 11–25. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2005.

———. Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World. London: The British Library, 1997.

———. “Maps in Context: Isidore, Orosius, and the Medieval Image of the World.” In Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods, edited by Richard J.A. Talbert and Richard Unger, 219–36. Leiden: Brill, 2008.

———. “The Medieval World View: Contemplating the Mappamundi.” History Compass 8, no. 6 (2010): 503–17. (link)

———. The World Map, 1300-1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2007.

———. “World Maps and Easter Tables: Medieval Maps in Context.” Imago Mundi 48 (1996): 25–42. (link)

Harley, J. B. and David Woodward. The History of Cartography, vol. I, Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Harvey, P.D.A. Medieval Maps. London: The British Library, 1991. Much of this text has been lately reproduced for free on the British Library’s website (link)

———. “Medieval Maps to 1500.” In Historian’s Guide to Early British Maps, edited by Helen Wallis and Anita McConnell, 13–15. London: Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 1994.

———. The History of Topographical Maps: Symbols, Pictures and Surveys. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.

Heng, Geraldine. “Eye on the World: Mandeville’s Pleasure Zones; or, Cartography, Anthropology and Medieval Travel Romance.” In Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy. Columbia University Press, 2003.

Kamal, Youssouf. Monumenta Cartographica Africae et Aegypti. 5 vols. in 16 parts. Cairo: n.p., 1926–1951.

Lavezzo, Kathy. Angels on the edge of the world: geography, literature, and English community, 1000-1534. Cornell University Press, 2006.

Lilley, Kieth, ed. Mapping Medieval Geographies: Geographical Encounters in the Latin West and Beyond, 300–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. (link)

Kupfer, Marcia Ann. “Medieval World Maps: Embedded Images, Interpretive Frames.” Word & Image 10, no. 3 (1994): 262–88. (link)

Merrills, A. H. History and Geography in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

———. Geography and Memory in Isidore’s Etymologies / in Lilley, Keith, ed. Mapping medieval geographies: Geographical encounters in the latin west and beyond, 300–1600. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Miller, Konrad Mappae Mundi: Die Ältesten Weltkarten. Stuttgart: Roth, 1895. (link)

Schöller, Bettina. “Transfer of Knowledge: Mappae Mundi Between Texts and Images.” Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 4, no. 1 (2013): 42–55. (link)

Scully, Diarmuid. “Augustus, Rome, Britain and Ireland on the Hereford mappa mundi: imperium and salvation.” Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 4, no. 1 (2013): 107-133. (link)

Simon, Jesse. “Chorography reconsidered.” In Lilley, Keith, ed. Mapping medieval geographies: Geographical encounters in the latin west and beyond, 300–1600. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Talbert, Richard J. A and Richard W. Unger, eds. Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods. Boston: Brill, 2008.

Terkla, Dan. “Hugh of St Victor (1096–1141) and Anglo-French Cartography.” Imago Mundi 65, no. 2 (2013): 161-179. (link)

Terkla, Dan, and Nick Millea, eds. A Critical Companion to English Mappae Mundi of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2019.

Tomasch, Sylvia and Sealy Gilles, eds. Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

Woodward, David. “Reality, Symbolism, Time, and Space in Medieval World Maps.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 75, no. 4 (1985): 510–21. (link)

Wright, John Kirtland. Geographic Lore in the Time of the Crusades: A Study in the History of Medieval Science and Tradition in Western Europe. 1925; reprint New York: Dover, 1965.

Other Mapping Resource Pages