The Hereford Mappa Mundi (Hereford World Map) is a large-scale map of the world created around the year 1300 and currently housed in Hereford Cathedral, England. It is the largest surviving complete map of the Middle Ages and offers a fascinating insight into the mentality of European Christians at the time.

The map is considered a kind of visual encyclopedia of the period, showing drawings inspired by the Biblical period through the Middle Ages. In addition to illustrating events that mark human history and 420 cities and geographic features, the map shows strange or unknown plants, animals, birds, and creatures and people. These include a “Blemmye”, a warlike creature with no head but facial features on its chest, two “Sciapods”, men with one large foot, and “four Cave-dwelling Troglodytes”, one of whom feeds on a snake. .

The map also includes supernatural scenes from classical Greek and Roman mythology, Biblical tales, and a collection of legends and folktales. As such, it reflects less on the world itself than on the worldview of humanity in an age that drew fewer lines of demarcation between fact and legend.

The fact is that it can be analyzed on the web themappamundi.co.uk/mappa-mundi/, a map that was intended to show that “the Bible is right”. To that end, “east is up, since that is where it was said that Jesus would come on the day of judgment. Jerusalem is, of course, in the center. Other points of interest include the site of the crucifixion, the Tower of Babel, and the Garden of Eden, not to mention the locations of the Golden Fleece and Mount Olympus.

You can even see a section with the 3D scan, for more details on how it was made, or drilled in key places.

Despite its severe geographical limitations and numerous errors, the Hereford Mappa Mundi remains a remarkable achievement and an invaluable sketch of the Middle Ages. Today, the map is available for detailed examination via a 3D scan available on the Hereford Cathedral website, offering a sort of “Google Medieval Land.”

The study of the Hereford Mappa Mundi offers us a window into the world of the Middle Ages and the worldview of the Christians of the time. It is a sample of the cultural wealth and knowledge of an era that are embodied in a visual object. The map is also an invitation to reflect on how the historical and cultural context influences the representation of the world and in the way in which people perceive and represent it.

On the web you can appreciate the complexity and precision of map creation at a time when technology and resources were limited. The creation of the map required a great deal of knowledge and skill, from cartography to illustration, and demonstrates the importance placed on visual representation of the world in the Middle Ages.

A jewel to spend a good time analyzing its details.