Berkhamsted Castle

Mappae mundi (maps of the world), beautiful objects in themselves, offer huge insights into how medieval scholars conceived the world and their place within it. They are a fusion of “real” geographical locations with fantastical, geographic, historical, legendary and theological material. Their production reached its height in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with such well-known examples as the Hereford map, the maps of Matthew Paris, and the Vercelli map.

This volume provides a comprehensive Companion to the seven most significant English mappae mundi, surveying the maps’ materials, types, shapes, sources, contents, and uses in the medieval world. It also explores the shared history of map and book making in Britain before and after the Norman Conquest.

A chapter is devoted to each individual map, including the Duchy of Cornwall Map Fragment and the Hereford Mappa Mundi.