Week 9/Tuesday, 16 November

Readings for the Week

Beyond Europe: Maps and Travel Literature

The Idea of History

Mandeville's Travels (c.1356; travel literature, prose) (Cotton Titus C. xiv) [ME & Mod E]
a. from Chapter XXXIV, Of the Hilles of Gold þat Pissemyres [Ants] Kepen . . .[and the Land of Darkness]
b. from Chapter XVI, Of the customes of Sarasines, & of hire lawe, & how the Soudan arresond me autour of this book . . .
c. from Chapter XXI, Of the uyll customs vsed in the Ile of Lamary, & how the erthe and the see ben of rownd schapp, be pref of the sterre that is clept Antartyk, þat is fix in the south
d. from Chapter XXVII: Of the lawe & the customs of the Tartarienes, duellynge in Chatay . . .

Medieval maps:
a. "Geography in Verse" (14th c., MS. Bib. Reg. 13 D.I.fol.287) [click, or scroll down]
b. "T" and "O" and Sallust maps [click, or scroll down]
c. Matthew Paris' England (13th century) [click, or scroll down]
d. Hereford Map (late 13th c.) and [encyclopedia description, below]
e. Genoese World Map (1457) [a portolano, or sea-chart, with scale bar]
f. Ptolemaic World Map (1486) [early printed map]

and A Wheel of Memory: The Hereford Mappamundi, Naomi Reed Kline [CD-ROM]

Hereford Map

Genoese Map

Ptolemaic Map

Characteristics of Nations (14th century; MS. 139, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) [click, or scroll down]

Paradise:
a. Cosmos Indicopleustes, Cosmographica (6th c. Greek prose) [click, or scroll down]
b. an account of the Muslim Paradise, from Ranulph Higden's Polychronicon, translated by John of Trevisa (13th century) [click, or scroll down]
c. John of Trevisa's description of Paradise, De Proprietatibus rerum (1387; encyclopedia, prose) [click, or scroll down]
d. Paradise as trope [click, or scroll down]
e. Dante's world view [click, or scroll down]
f. An angel bars the gate to paradise ()
g. "The Land of Cokaygne" (c. 1300; B.M. Harley 913; parodic poem)

Þis world ys delyd al on þre, [divided]
Asie, Affrike, and Europe.
Wole 3e now here of Asie,
How fele londes þereinne be. [many]
He3tetene kynges londes [countries of heathen kings]
Ben in Asye þe stronge;
Of þe londes the six ben
By the occeane see,
India, Arcusia, Persia,
Assyria, Persis, and Media,
Þese alle stonden by þat see. (1-11)
 

The Hereford Map

An elaborately detailed, highly ornamented, and lavishly illustrated map (vellum, 65" by 53") dated to the end of the thirteenth century. The Hereford Map may have been drawn by, or commissioned by, one "Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford" (better known as "Ricardus de Bello"), a prebendary of Hereford, who most likely presented or bequeathed it to Hereford Cathedral. Æthicus, Isidore, Marcian Capella, Orosius, Pliny, and Solinus are cited as sources on the map itself, though it is likely that de Bello or his artist/author did not borrow directly from these authorities in all cases, but acquired his knowledge second and third-hand. Many similarities between the Hereford Map and the "Imago Mundi" map at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, exist, and the ornamentation is similar to that of the "Psalter" map. The influence of bestiary and herbal lore, along with the accounts of the voyages of Alexander and other real or mythical travelers, can be seen in the hundreds of paintings that decorate the map.
The Hereford Map is a good example of how medieval maps were often highly schematized, reflecting a written lore that was a curious mixture of authentic reports and literary commonplaces. As such, it can be classified as a "Sallust" map (named for a type of map often attached to Sallust's works), that is, a more elaborated version of the "T and O" map in which the "T" represents the seas that separated the three continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia, and the "O" contains the world ocean that was believed to surround the continents that comprised the orbis terrarum habatio.
As in many other medieval maps, the world is represented as a flat disk, with the east at the top. Here is painted Christ at the Last Judgment, his angels ranged on either side. His hands are outstretched as if to encompass all of the known world; his feet point north, in the direction of the British Isles (located at the bottom, western portion of the map). Although the painting of Christ lies outside of the "O," Paradise is depicted inside it, directly underneath the figure of Christ; it is surrounded by a stone wall and another wall of fire. Adam and Eve are represented as standing outside the gates of the Garden of Eden. The circular shape of Paradise repeats the O-shape of the world itself. In accordance with tradition, Jerusalem is located in the exact center of the map, and hence the world. It is also depicted as an "O," surrounded by crenellated walls.

The Crucifixion is painted just above the city of Jerusalem. Balancing Paradise, located at the eastern limits of the known world, are the Pillars of Hercules, located at the western limits.
The continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia, unrecognizable to us today in their outlines, contain small tableaux drawn from history, legend, and scripture. Rivers and mountains, along with their names, are indicated; these often have symbolic significance. Metonymic castles and other massive buildings mark the location of cities, such as Babylon, Rome, and London; inscriptions and paintings note the kingdom of Cleopatra, towns founded by Alexander, and the land of Gog and Magog. Tableaux are numerous, such as the one of a mother tiger foiled by a hunter with a mirror, or another of a griffin fighting with three men over emeralds. Real and fabulous beasts are depicted, such as the elephant (with a castle on its back), the manticore, the parrot, the camel, the crocodile, the unicorn, and the dragon. Along the extreme edges of the world are ranged the monstrous races, such as the Blemyae (whose eyes and mouth are below their shoulders), the Essedones (cannibals), the Psylli (who test the chastity of their women by exposing their new-born infants to snakes). While geographical information within the "O" is given in Latin, the language of its inscribed frame is Anglo-Norman, the language used to exhort all who view the map (here referred to as cest estoire, "this story, narrative, history"), to pray for Ricardus de Bello.

black-and-white detail, of a mantichora
(a beast with a man's head and a lion's body)

Kathleen Coyne Kelly, forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Medieval Trade and Travel

Invidia Judaeorum; ira Britonum: perfidia Persarum; spurcitia [unclean, impure] Sclavorum; fallacia Græcorum; rapacitas Romanorum; astutia Ægiptiorum; prudentia Hebræorum; sævitia [angry, fierce] Saracenorum; stabilitas Persarum; solertia [clever, skillful] Ægyptiorum; levitas Caldæorum; sapientia Græcorum; varietas Affrorum; gravitas Romanorum; gula Gallum; largitas Longobardorum; vana gloria Longobardorum; sobrietas Gottorum; crudelitas Hunorum; sagacitas Caldaeorum; inmunditia [unclean, impure] Sabinorum; ingenium Affricorum; ferocitas Francorum; firmitas Gallorum; stultitia Saxonum, fortitudo Francorum; hebetudo [dull] Bavariorum; instantia Saxonum; luxuria Vascanorum; agilitas Walcarorum; vinolentia [wine-drinking] Hispaniarum; magnanimitas Pictorum; duritia [harsh, austere] Pictorum; hospitalitas Britonum; argutia [lively, or perh. subtle, quibbling] Hispaniarum; libido Suevorum; duritia et superbia Pictavorum.

Yet if Paradise did exist in this earth of ours, many a man among those who are keen to know and enquire into all kinds of subjects, would think he could not be too quick in getting there: for if there be some who to procure silk for the miserable gains of commerce, hesitate not to travel to the uttermost ends of the earth, how should they hesitate to go where they would gain a sight of Paradise itself?
 

And he seiþ þat who þat holdeþ al þis and oþere hestes of his lawe God Almy3ti byhoteþ hym paradys, þe orchard of likynge, þere is noon distemperure noþer peyne, þere is no manere greef, but al manere of welþe and of likynge; þere is likynge mete for to ete, and cloþes to wereie, and maydens to beclippe faire schal serve him þere; þe aungels beeþ so huge and so greet þat from þe oon y3e to þat oþer is þe space of a day his jornay.  

On the knowledge of the earthly Paradise three points must be made, or three questions must be asked: is there any such place on earth? In what direction or where is the earthly Paradise? In what country or in what place is Paradise? For the first question, we have four kinds of witnesses that Paradise is on earth: the first, stories that compare Sodom to Paradise-Paradise, as it were, annihilated; the second, those who tried to reach Paradise and wrote of that place, saying that they had seen it; the third, the four rivers that flow out of Paradise [Physon, or Ganges; Gyon, or Nile; Tigris; and Euphrates], for the head of these rivers have not been found in any sea, or in fresh water, nor in lands in which men dwell, though kings of Egypt and many others have worked hard to find them. . . . The fourth, that such a place called Paradise exists in the earth, is ancient, long-enduring knowledge [i.e., fama and auctoritas]. . . . Such fame or knowledge has lasted, without nay-saying, for six thousand years and more, for from the beginning of the world until our time has it endured.

. . . those who are short-witted and lacking in enterprise say that Paradise has long left the earthly realm in which men dwell, and to boot, has departed the earth and can be found as high as the moon--this is not to be believed, for fact and nature both nay-say it. If Paradise had left the sphere of earth, neither water nor air might bear such a burden. Also, fire occupies all the middle space between the air and the moon, so Paradise is not there, for nothing is able to live there. Also, if Paradise were so high, then sometimes it would eclipse the moon, and we have never heard of such a thing. . . . and how should the four rivers that flow out of Paradise pass through the air and the wide sea and enter into the lands in which humanity dwells? And if Paradise is so high and in one place relative to the earth, than the earth must be long and not round all about, as wise men describe it . . . for it is known by experience and study that in every eclipse of the moon the earth makes a round shield. Therefore the earth, with all its parts, must be round.

And so wise men have concluded that Paradise is in the uttermost end of the East, and that it is a large country, a place large enough and comfortable enough for all humanity to dwell within, if humanity had not sinned.

. . . [Paradise] has fair weather and delightful, for it was the root and location of all beauty; no tree loses its leaves, no flowers fade there; there is mirth and sweetness . . . but alas, our way to Paradise is solidly stopped by reason of the sin of our first father; it is enclosed all about with a fiery wall . . . angel stand on that wall to keep Paradise in good stead, so that no evil spirits can enter within.
 

When rock singer Meatloaf sings of "Paradise by the dashboard light," he is using a metaphor to describe what used to be a quintessentially American phenomenon: sex in the backseat of a car. I am sure that he is not aware of the long tradition of love and desire troped as Paradise, a tradition that can be traced back, in the West at least, to that proto-paradise described in the Song of Songs: "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed," etc.

Frequently, in medieval literature, the idea of Paradise serves as a obvious metaphor for romantic bliss. For example, in the Knight's Tale, Arcite feels that he has been condemned to hell because he has been exiled, and therefore cannot gaze upon Emelye. He says of Palomon's sojourn in his tower, "in prison? certes nay, but in paradys!"--because Palomon can continue to see Emelye as she walks in the garden (1237). Gower uses this idea in the Confessio Amantis. When Amans sees his beloved, he says that it is "as though I were in Paradis, / I am so ravisht of the syhte" (4.502-03).

In the Merchant's Tale January says of marriage that: "Noon oother lyf," seyde he, "is worth a bene; / For wedlok is so esy and so clene,
That in this world it is a paradys." (1263-65)
Moreover, the uxorious January makes an Eden of his wife; he calls her "His fresshe May, his paradys, his make" (1822).

Finally, Chaucer/the narrator says of Criseyde in Troilus and Criseyde:

And, save hire browes joyneden yfeere,
Ther nas no lakke in aught I kan espien.
But for to speken of hire eyen cleere,
Lo, trewely, they writen that hire syen
That Paradis stood formed in hire yën;
And with hire riche beaute evere more
Strof loue in hire ay which of hem was more. (V.813-819)

An angel bars the gate to Paradise,
from the "Caedmon Manuscript" of Anglo-Saxon Biblical poetry (late 10th- early 11th century: Bodleian Library, MS. Junius 11, p. 46) be patient while downloading!