This map is 900 years old – how accurate is it?
Around the year 1136, a map was inscribed in China. It is considered a remarkable example of medieval geography, but how does it fare when tested against modern georeferencing?
A Medieval Map of the World with Meredith Small
With a team of dedicated monks and lay brothers to help him, fifteenth-century Venetian Fra Mauro attempted to create the most accurate map of the world. This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Meredith Small about this incredible mappamundi, what it contained, and how this landed Fra Mauro on the moon.
Monsters Traveling from Map to Book: An Unexpected Journey
In this talk I will examine three cases in which information traveled in the other direction: the authors of books used maps as their sources for monsters.
Medieval Maps: The Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century
Our latest digital map of the medieval world is for sale on our Patreon.
Maps: East Asia in the Year 1000
A digital map of medieval Asia is now available in our Patreon Shop.
Maps: Africa in the 14th century
A great digital map of the medieval world – Africa in the 14th century.
Maps: London in the 14th century
Our latest digital map for sale – fourteenth-century London.
Adriatic Sea or Gulf of Venice? How Medieval Politics played out on maps
For centuries a debate was taking place among Europe’s mapmakers: should the Adriatic Sea be called the Gulf of Venice?
Maps: The Norman Conquest of England in 1066
Our latest digital map for sale – a detailed look at the events of the Norman Conquest of England.
Maps: Europe in the Year 1000
Our latest map of the medieval world details Europe in the year 1000.
New Medieval Books: Here Begins the Dark Sea
The story of the Venetian monk Fra Mauro and the map of the world he created in 1459.
What were 12th-century Maps of the Holy Land meant to express?
My argument is that the earliest Western type of Holy Land map was formulated in a purely religious context — not in relation to the Crusader enterprise and ideology — and that this type of map was a pure devotional image.
The Madaba Map: A Further Reexamination
I claim that the Madaba map belonged to a new genre of “Holy Land” iconography that appeared in Palestine in the sixth century, iconography that related to the formation of the Holy Land’s sacred space and the interpretation of its landscape in light of the biblical text.
Five Maps to Explore Medieval Britain
These five interactive maps offer us a lot of ways to look back on Britain during the Middle Ages.
“The Vinland Map is a fake” – new research suggests map is a 20th century forgery
A new analysis shows that the ink used in the Vinland Map was created no earlier than the 1920s, which further demonstrates that the famous item purportedly showing a medieval view of the Americas is actually a modern-day forgery.
Brief Introduction to Medieval Maps
Helen Davies, John Wyatt Greenlee, and Tobias Hrynick offer a brief introduction to medieval maps, what they look like, how they were made, and more!
Medieval Manuscripts: Cartography, Diplomacy and Espionage in the Atlas Miller
A closer look at the lavishly decorated charts reveals not only routes towards new horizons but also hidden motives of its commissioners and a high-stake intrigue.
40,000 early modern maps now freely available online
The British Library is making available 40,000 maps dating between 1500 and 1824, which will be freely available online for the first time. They are part of the Topographical Collection of King George III (K. Top), and included maps, atlases, architectural drawings, cartoons and watercolours.
Medieval Manuscripts: A Walk through 16th century Constantinople, Baghdad, and Aleppo
Do you want to see the 16th century Middle East through an illuminator’s eyes? Check out the interactive maps!
Mental Geographies and Cultural Identities in the Baltic Region in the Eleventh-Century: the Anglo-Saxon Cotton World Map
The cartography of the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia has been an interesting topic among scholars of the history of the ancient maps.
Jacopo de’ Barbari’s ‘View of Venice’ (1500): Image Vehicles Past and Present
This essay focuses on an iconic and ground-breaking woodcut – Jacopo de’ Barbari (c. 1460/70–1516) and Anton Kolb’s View of Venice (1500) – and an interactive museum installation that I first developed for Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art.
500 Years after the First Voyage around the World: Secrets of the Atlas Miller
This is the secret of the Atlas Miller: it tries to counter the idea that the world could be circumnavigated.
Portolan Charts from the Late Thirteenth Century to 1500
From the earliest extant copies, probably a little before 1300, the outline they gave for the Mediterranean was amazingly accurate.
Geographies of Salvation: How to Read Medieval Mappae Mundi
Scholars who judge mappae mundi by medieval standards usually emphasize the salvific over the practical aspect. But were mappae mundi truly not ‘realistic’?
Maps, Monsters and Misericords: From Creation to Apocalypse
This survey of maps and misericords suggests that the other has persistently been envisioned as strange and threatening and thus a constant challenge that tests morality.