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Representations of Jerusalem on Medieval Maps and Miniatures

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Representations of Jerusalem on Medieval Maps and Miniatures ECA 2 (2005), p. 139-148; doi: 10.2143 / ECA.2.0.2004556 Representations of Jerusalem on Medieval Maps and Miniatures Martine MEUWESE Although Jerusalem was considered to be the cen- maps by placing the east at the top instead of the tre of the world, it was so remote for most Chris- north, derived from the fact that Christ, like the tians in medieval Europe that the city was unimag- sun, was expected to rise in the east at the Last inable except in terms of their own familiar realities. Judgment. Europe appears in the lower part on the For spiritual reasons, too, representations of the city left of the circle with cities such as Rome and Paris, of Jerusalem in medieval Western manuscripts were while Asia is to the right; there the monstrous races, more symbolic than realistic, as I hope to demon- which were thought to exist at the edges of the strate in this article with some representative exam- earth, are stacked3. Africa takes up the whole upper ples, ‘zooming in’ from the representation of portion. Jerusalem on world maps, to regional maps of the The circular city of Jerusalem, the centre of Holy Land, city maps of Jerusalem, and representa- Christianity, is set as the ‘middle’ of the world. This tions of the city itself1. central position is based on Ezekiel 5:5, where God promises that he will establish Jerusalem in the MAPPAE MUNDI: MAPS OF THE WORLD midst of nations and the countries that are round about her. In the later Middle Ages this was inter- It is unlikely that anybody looking at a ‘world map’ preted literally as the centre of the earth, which in the Middle Ages would have thought that it por- caused a reorganisation of maps. Placing Jerusalem trayed a geographical representation of the earth2. in the middle became a cartographic convention, A medieval map of the world had an entirely dif- but it does not mean that medieval geographers saw ferent purpose from that of an atlas. Such maps Jerusalem as the actual centre of the world. were first of all intended to be a framework for Jerusalem was also the focus of the Crusades. It knowledge and depict the world as a place of was the spiritual goal that pilgrims most longed to human history. Hence they were more like a theo- reach because it marked the most important Chris- logical encyclopaedia and never intended to be a tian site in the world: that of Christ’s Crucifixion. chart for travellers. The famous Hereford Mappa Mundi was painted One example is a map of the world drawn on on a single skin and occupies some one and a half the first page of a psalter produced in London in square metres (Pl. 2). It was made in 1290 by the 1260s (London, BL, Add. 28681, fol. 9r; Pl. 1). Richard of Haldingham, a canon at Hereford Only measuring some nine centimetres across, it Cathedral in the period 1305-1313. England and can be considered a tiny world map. Above, Hereford itself, where the map was made, are on the between two angels swinging censers, God is repre- periphery to the bottom left. The circular city sented in the traditional ‘Majestas Domini’ posi- of Jerusalem is the exact centre of this map, and tion: he raises his right hand in blessing and in the the compass point in the middle may have been left hand he holds an orb that itself symbolises the used to draw its circular outer frame, as well as the world. Twelve winds are shown as faces blowing out circle of the city walls. The Crucifixion is depicted air around the edge of the world. The east is posi- tioned at the top: Paradise is represented by the faces of Adam and Eve in a circle, with the leg- 1 I am grateful to Sophie Oosterwijk, Mat Immerzeel and endary trees of the sun and the moon also depicted Tasha Vorderstrasse for helpful comments and suggestions. 2 For a survey of medieval maps, see Edson 1997. there, and the four rivers of Paradise radiating out- 3 For a study of the monstrous races and their occurrence on ward from the enclosure. The custom of orienting world maps, see Friedman 1981. 139 above the city, surrounded by Mount Ephraim, the look to alternative ways of making such a spiritu- Mount of Olives, and the Valley of Jehoshaphat ally significant journey. (Pl. 2). The Crucifixion is the only event from the Matthew Paris (ca 1200-1259) was a monk at gospels shown on this map. the Benedictine abbey of St Albans in England, The Ebstorf map was made in 1239 in lower which he entered in 1217. He is a remarkable fig- Saxony near Lüneburg; it owes its name to its dis- ure for many reasons, not at least since he was evi- covery in a closet in the former Benedictine nun- dently a scribe, an artist and an author. The first nery at Ebstorf. The Ebstorf Convent is depicted as seven pages of Matthew Paris’s famous Chronica a small edifice between the towns of Lüneburg and Majora, written and illuminated about 1250, make Brunswick, and it has been suggested that the nuns up a kind of medieval road map, linking London of Ebstorf created the map themselves4. The map through the major cities and towns of Europe with itself was destroyed in the 1943 bombing of the great centres of pilgrimage for Europeans: Rome Hanover, but four replicas have since been made and Jerusalem. The map’s position at the start of based on all the available evidence. The Ebstorf map this chronicle, accompanied by genealogies, Easter is known to have been much larger than the Here- Tables and a calendar specific to the abbey, indicates ford map, some three square meters, and drawn on that Matthew made these maps for the monastic thirty pieces of parchment. Jerusalem is here community of St Albans. These pages served the depicted in gold and is shown as a walled square, Benedictine brothers perusing them as a spiritual with a picture of the Resurrection instead of the aid in allowing them to make an imaginary pilgrim- Crucifixion. Oddly enough, this Resurrection scene age that led through Europe to the Crusader city of is shown sideways in relation to the map as a whole; Acre and eventually to Jerusalem7. Christ is thus made to face the North5. A large The large walled enclosure on the oriented map number of contemporary place names, including of the Holy Land is Acre, the last town to remain monasteries and pilgrimage shrines, are also indi- in the Crusaders’ hands. Jerusalem is at the top cated, and a camel on the left refers to the oriental right, a much smaller walled square space, and setting. above it are the Dead Sea and the river Jordan8. Cities are shown by conventional signs, which may MATTHEW PARIS: MAPS OF THE HOLY LAND perhaps suggest their relative size or importance, but gives no idea of their geographical features or of Jerusalem was so central to Christian history and their actual appearance. The representation of a theology that the desire to visit its holy sites, espe- camel on the map of the Holy Land again empha- cially those of Christ’s death and Resurrection con- sizes that this is alien territory. tained in the Holy Sepulchre complex, dominated Matthew’s maps exist in multiple versions that medieval culture6. Yet relatively few people in the are very similar. They all show ships arriving at the Middle Ages could make a physical pilgrimage to port of Jaffa and the square walled city of Jerusalem Jerusalem. Expenses, hardship, tenure to the land, (e.g. London, BL, Royal 14 C VII, fol. 5r; Pl. 3)9. and monastic vows meant that most people had to Matthew’s radical shift to the more profound Latin language for the inscriptions of Jerusalem – the only Latin of the map as the other inscriptions are in Anglo-Norman – puts the city of Jerusalem at a 4 Hoogvliet 1996. 5 Edson 1997, 138. remove from the rest of the map. The accompany- 6 Smith 1991. ing Anglo-Norman text describes Jerusalem as the 7 For Matthew Paris and the Maps of the Holy Land, see most dignified of all cities, situated in the centre of Connolly 1991; Gaudio 2000; Lewis 1987. the world, where Christ died to save us all. 8 Lewis 1987, 348, remarks that the striking differences in size between Acre and Jerusalem on the Matthew Paris The geometric depiction of Jerusalem can be maps accurately reflect their approximate populations of considered as a combination of both the historic 30,000 versus 5,000 by the third and fourth decades of the earthly Jerusalem and the future heavenly city on thirteenth century. earth. Its own confines house the three sites of 9 Other Matthew Paris maps of the Holy Land which were bound with the various editions of the Chronica Majora are greatest interest to earthly pilgrims: the Temple of Cambridge, Corpus Christi 16, fol. 56r. and Corpus Christi the Lord, the Temple of Solomon, and the Holy 26, fol. 4r. Sepulchre. At the same time, the fact that Jerusalem 140 Pl. 1. World map; London, BL, Add. 28681, fol. 9r Pl. 3. Jerusalem; London, BL, Royal 14 C VII, fol. 5r Pl. 2. Jerusalem on the Hereford Map Pl. 4. Jerusalem; Cambrai, BM, 437 141 is represented with square walls specifically invokes few exceptions, such as the renowned trapezoid John’s apocalyptic vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem, Cambrai map, which shows a unique and compar- and so participates in the traditional iconography atively accurate rendering of Jerusalem in the Cru- of this eternal city.
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