{"id":1877,"date":"2022-06-21T18:26:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T00:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2022-06-25T22:18:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T04:18:22","slug":"hereford-mappa-mundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/uk-2022\/hereford-22\/hereford-mappa-mundi\/","title":{"rendered":"Hereford: Mappa Mundi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Mappa Mundi (“map of the world”) created in the late 1200s, perhaps near Hereford. It is drawn on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin) and measures 64″ \u00d7 52″ and is the largest surviving medieval map.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You would not use the Mappa Mundi to create a travel plan. Even in the Middle Ages, long before the plotting of latitude and longitude, there were navigational charts and land maps with some degree of accuracy.The Mappa Mundi, instead, represents an idea of the world and what it contains. Accordingly, the map portrays not only cities, rivers, and seas, but historical notes, legends, biblical stories, strange animals, and stranger humanoids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mappa Mundi is a T and O map.The O is obvious, being the circular shape of the entire map surrounded by the sea. The T (more or less formed by the Mediterranean Sea) divides the map in three parts. Above the crossbar of the T is “Asia” \u2013 mostly what we refer to as the Middle East. To the left of the stem of the T is Europe (the British Isles are the lower left corner); to the right “Africa” \u2013 mostly the northern coast.  Jerusalem is at the center of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a helpful facsimile with English translations. Enlarge the photo and explore the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facsimile with English translations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Magna Carta<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hereford Cathedral also has a copy of the Magna Carta, the foundation document of English law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Chained Library<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hereford Cathedral also preserves the largest and most complete chained library in Europe. I asked the docent how it was that Hereford happened to preserve the largest,\u00a0 oldest, most complete library of its kind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The docent replied that he had thought long and hard about the reason. He finally concluded that it was entirely due to the fact that between the time of Henry VIII and The Great War, absolutely nothing happened in Hereford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By way of explaining chained book libraries, I quote from Hereford Cathedral’s site<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chaining of books was the most widespread and effective security system in European libraries from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, and Hereford Cathedral\u2019s 17th-century Chained Library is the largest to survive with all its chains, rods and locks intact.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chain is attached at one end to the front cover of each book; the other end is slotted on to a rod running along the bottom of each shelf. The system allows a book to be taken from the shelf and read at the desk, but not to be removed from the bookcase.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The books are shelved with their foredges, rather than their spines, facing the reader (the wrong way round to us); this allows the book to be lifted down and opened without needing to be turned around \u2013 thus avoiding tangling the chain.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The contents of each shelving bay is identified at the end.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You would not use the Mappa Mundi to create a travel plan. Even in the Middle Ages, long before the plotting of latitude and longitude, there were navigational charts and land maps with some degree of accuracy.The Mappa Mundi, instead, represents an idea of the world and what it contains. Accordingly, the map portrays not… Continue reading Hereford: Mappa Mundi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[44,60,57,48],"class_list":["post-1877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hereford-22","tag-architecture","tag-churches-cathedrals-gb","tag-galleries-museums-gb","tag-history","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1877"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions\/2179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}