Medieval Maps

History of Maps and Cartography

Course 1 · Chapter 3 · Roman and Medieval Maps

Between the end of the Roman Empire and the age of print, several kinds of map lived side by side, each made for a different purpose. Some showed the road to a place, some showed the whole of sacred history, some helped a sailor find a harbour, and some gathered the learning of scholars in Baghdad, Cairo and Palermo. This chapter sets them side by side and tests the popular idea that people in the Middle Ages believed the Earth was flat. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Four Kinds of Map

Itineraries

Maps or lists that show the way from place to place. The Peutinger Table is a long, narrow Roman-style road map, known from a medieval copy (check the date of the original and the copy).

Mappae mundi

"Cloths of the world": large pictures of history and belief as much as of geography, often with Jerusalem at the centre and east at the top (check).

Portolan charts

Sea charts of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, covered in lines radiating from compass points, with port names written inland at right angles to the coast (check).

Scholarly world maps

Maps by Islamic geographers drawn with coordinates and with sources, often combining Ptolemy with travellers' reports (check).

Roman Itineraries

The Peutinger Table. A long strip showing roads, towns and distances, stretched so that Britain, Europe and Asia run across a long page. It is a copy made around the thirteenth century of an older original (check).
Purpose. It shows connections and distances, not true shape, like a modern transport diagram.
The lesson. A map that gets shapes wrong may still do its job. Chapter 8 returns to this.

Mappae Mundi

Feature (check each)	Detail
The Hereford Mappa Mundi, about 1300	A large map on vellum, kept at Hereford Cathedral, with Jerusalem near the centre, east at the top, and many scenes from the Bible, classical stories and travellers' tales.
Purpose	To show the place of the world in sacred history and to teach, not to guide a traveller.
Monsters and wonders	Drawn from classical and early Christian authors, they marked the edges of the known world, and were drawn for meaning, not as sailing directions.
Other examples	The Ebstorf map, destroyed in the Second World War, and smaller maps in manuscripts (check).

The flat-Earth myth Educated medieval writers generally described the Earth as a sphere, and this was standard teaching in the schools. The idea that medieval people believed in a flat Earth, and that Columbus proved otherwise, was spread mainly in the nineteenth century (check the history of the myth and the names usually linked with it). The circular form of a mappa mundi is a diagram of the habitable world, not a claim about the shape of the planet.

Portolan Charts

Appearance. Coastlines drawn with remarkable accuracy for the Mediterranean, with a web of straight lines from compass roses (check).
Use. Probably aids for sailors to plan a course by compass direction and estimated distance, though how they were used on board is debated (check).
Earliest. The Carta Pisana, around 1300, is often named as the oldest surviving example (check).
Material. Drawn on animal skin and made to last, suggesting that they were also valuable objects (check).
The Catalan Atlas, 1375, combines portolan coasts with a picture of the wider world, including Africa and Asia (check).

Islamic Geography

Figure (check each)	Contribution
Al-Khwarizmi, ninth century	Produced a work on the "picture of the earth" with coordinates, partly based on Ptolemy.
Al-Biruni, about 1000	Wrote on geodesy and on the determination of positions and the Earth's size.
Al-Idrisi, twelfth century	Worked for the Norman king Roger II of Sicily on a silver planisphere and a book of descriptions. His maps in the book often put south at the top (check).
Piri Reis, 1513	An Ottoman admiral whose world map, partly surviving, drew on many sources including Columbus. Popular claims that it shows Antarctica are not supported by scholars (check).

A British comparison The Hereford map is an hour's journey from many parts of Britain and can be visited, together with the cathedral's chained library. Seeing it in person is a good way to understand that a map can be a statement of belief as much as a guide for travellers. The surviving Gough Map of Britain, about 1360, is by contrast a route map of roads and towns (check the date).

Check the details Dates for medieval maps are approximate, and attributions are often disputed. Claims about Piri Reis and "lost knowledge" should be tested against scholarly sources, and be treated with caution if they cite no evidence.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Make a table comparing the four kinds of map by purpose, user, accuracy and style of drawing.

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Exercise 2

Write a short answer to someone who says that medieval people believed the Earth was flat, using what mappae mundi show.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Explain why east was at the top on many maps, and why we say "orient" for finding our bearings.

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Quick Reference

Itinerary: Peutinger Table, roads and distances
Mappa mundi: Hereford, sacred history, east at the top
Portolan chart: Mediterranean coasts, compass lines
Islamic geography: al-Idrisi, coordinates, sources
The myth: the flat Earth is a later invention