THE ART, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY OF MEDIEVAL TRAVEL AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art is a series produced by AVISTA (The Association Villard de Honnecourt for Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art), and published by Ashgate. The aim of the series is to promote the cross-disciplinary objectives of AVISTA by publishing in the areas of the history of science, technology, architecture, and art. The society takes its name from Villard (Wilars) de Honnecourt, an elusive persona of the 13th century whose autograph portfolio contains a variety of fascinating drawings and descriptions of both the fine and mechanical arts. www.avista.org AVISTA President, 2004–present Robert Bork Volume Editors Robert Bork and Andrea Kann AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art Volume 6 The Art, Science, and Technology of Medieval Travel Edited by ROBERT BORK and ANDREA KANN © Robert Bork and Andrea Kann 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Robert Bork and Andrea Kann have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Gower House Suite 420 Croft Road 101 Cherry Street Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405 Hampshire GU11 3HR USA England www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Art, Science, and Technology of Medieval Travel. – (AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art) 1. Travel, Medieval. 2. Cartography – History – To 1500. 3. Transportation – History – To 1500. I. Bork, Robert Odell, 1967– . II. Kann, Andrea. III. Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science and Art 914’.0414 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Art, Science, and Technology of Medieval Travel / edited by Robert Bork and Andrea Kann. p. cm. – (AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art ; 6) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Travel, Medieval. I. Bork, Robert Odell, 1967– II. Kann, Andrea. G369.A78 2008 914.04’14–dc22 2008006356 ISBN 978-0-7546-6307-2 Contents List of Figures vii Contributors xi Introduction: The Art, Science, and Technology of Medieval Travel 1 Robert Bork and Andrea Kann Part I: Medieval Vehicles and Logistics 15 1 Carolingian Military Operations: An Introduction to Technological Perspectives 17 Bernard S. Bachrach 2 Everything is a Compromise: Mediterranean Ship Design, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries 31 John E. Dotson 3 From Carriage to Coach: What Happened? 41 Julian Munby 4 Caister Castle, Norfolk, and the Transport of Brick and other Building Materials in the Middle Ages 55 David H. Kennett Part II: Medieval Travel and the Arts 69 5 Pilgrims and Portals in Late Medieval Siena 71 Michelle Duran-McLure 6 The Strange Lands of Ambrogio Lorenzetti 83 Anne McClanan 7 Spiritual Pilgrimage in the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg 97 Annette Lermack Part III: Medieval Maps and their Uses 113 8 Mapping the Macrocosm: Christian Platonist Thought behind Medieval Maps and Plans 115 Nigel Hiscock vi CONTENTS 9 Informal Catechesis and the Hereford Mappa Mundi 127 Dan Terkla 10 The Gough Map: Britain’s Oldest Road Map, or a Statement of Empire? 143 Nick Millea 11 Petrarch’s Journey between Two Maps 157 Evelyn Edson Part IV: Medieval Navigational Instruments 167 12 Medieval Tools of Navigation: An Overview 169 Richard A. Paselk 13 Astrolabes and Medieval Travel 181 Sara Schechner Index 211 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii Kennett was educated at Luton Grammar School for Boys, the University of Cardiff, Bristol Polytechnic and the University of Salford. Annette Lermack is an assistant professor of Art History in the School of Art at Illinois State University. Her studies of the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg began at the University of Iowa with her 1999 PhD dissertation, “Fit For A Queen: The Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg.” In addition to the essay in this volume, she has presented papers at the 32nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, the 13th Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, the 1999 South Central Renaissance Association Conference, the 2001 Midwest Art History Association Conference, and the 2005 and 2006 Southeastern Medieval Association Conferences. Her paper “Demons and Dynasty: The Armorials in the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg” will appear in Medieval Perspectives 21. Anne McClanan is an professor of Medieval Art at Portland State University in Oregon. She has studied at Harvard University (PhD), the Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University. Her research in the area of material culture has led her to work on excavations in Jordan, Israel, and Turkey. Her publications include: Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: Image and Empire (2002), The Material Culture of Sex, Procreation, and Marriage in Pre-Modern Europe (co- edited with Karen Encarnación, 2002), and, most recently, Negating the Image: Case Studies in Past Iconoclasm (co-edited with Jeffrey Johnson, 2006). The latter will be published in Chinese in 2008. Her forthcoming book investigates representations of the natural world in medieval Italy. Nick Millea is Map Librarian at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, a position he has held since 1992. He has a degree in Geography from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and a postgraduate diploma in Library and Information Studies from Manchester Polytechnic. Previous posts included Map Curator at the University of Sussex (1990–92). Nick is a Council member of the British Cartographic Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He has been Chairman of the LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européenes de Recherche) Groupe des Cartothécaires Working Group for Education since 2000, and is a founder-member and organizer of The Oxford Seminars in Cartography (1993–). In 2002 Nick was featured in The Independent on Sunday as one of the UK’s ten leading cartographers. Julian Munby is an historic buildings archaeologist with Oxford Archaeology, a major heritage consultancy. He has studied buildings, towns, and landscapes in England and elsewhere, and is currently working in Ireland, Scotland, and France. He has a particular interest in medieval carpentry and the development of the mechanics of roofing, machinery, and construction. An innocent inquiry about medieval road transport has led him to undertake an international study of the transition from medieval carriages to the coach in the 16th century. This has developed key themes of medieval archaeology and history of technology, combining the study of objects, words, and images. He recently participated in an excavation at Windsor Castle, List of Figures Unless otherwise indicated, all illustrations and photographs are by the authors. 3.1 Brass “hearse” in the form of a carriage 000 body, on the Beauchamp Tomb at St. Mary’s, Warwick. Drawing: Ric Tyler. 3.2 The 1560 wedding carriage of the Duke 000 of Saxony at Veste Coburg. Drawing: Ric Tyler, after an original by the author. 5.1 Siena, Porta Romana. 000 5.2 Siena, Antiporto di Camollia. 000 6.1 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Good Government in the 000 Countryside (detail), 1337–40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Photo credit: Alinari Archives, Florence. 6.2 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Martyrdom of Franciscans, 000 c. 1335–45, now in the Church of San Francesco, Siena. Photo credit: Alinari Archives, Florence. 7.1 The Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg, The 000 Six Degrees of Charity, Folio 315, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1969 (69.86). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 7.2 The Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg, Crucifixion, 000 Folio 329, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1969 (69.86). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 7.3 The Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg, Side 000 Wound and Arma Christi, Folio 331, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1969 (69.86). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 8.1 Ebstorf Map, thirteenth century; twentieth-century 000 reconstruction, Kloster Ebstorf. Reproduced by kind permission of Kloster Ebstorf. viii LIST OF FIGURES 8.2 Tripartite diagram of world, eleventh 000 century; BL Royal MS. 6C. 1, fol. 108v. © The British Library Board. 8.3 Quadripartite diagram of world, tenth century, 000 after Macrobius; Bodley MS. Auct. T. 2. 27, fol. 12v. Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. 8.4 Plan, Santiago de Compostela, 000 begun 1078; after Conant. 8.5 Temple and Body, Francesco di Giorgio 000 Martini, after 1482; Florence, Bibl. Nazionale, Cod. Magliabechiano II. I. 141, fol. 42v. Reproduced by kind permission of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence. 9.1 The Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1283). 000 Reproduced with permission from the Dean and Chapter, Hereford Cathedral. 9.2 The Cantilupe Complex. Mappa Mundi 000 image reproduced with permission from the Dean and Chapter, Hereford Cathedral. Photoshop® reconstitution by Spencer Sauter of spenmedia.com. 9.3 Uxor Loth (Lot’s Wife). Image from the Hereford 000 Mappa Mundi. Reproduced with permission from the Dean and Chapter, Hereford Cathedral. 10.1 The Gough map, general view. 000 Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. 12.1 Reproductions of medieval navigational 000 tools, made by Richard A. Paselk. (1a) Mariner’s compass; (1b) quadrant; (1c) early mariner’s astrolabe; (1d) later mariner’s astrolabe; (1e) kamal; (1f) cross-staff. 13.1 Front and back of a planispheric astrolabe 000 made by Jean Fusoris, Paris, c. 1400, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, DPW0594. 13.2 Geometry making an astrolabe, from Gregor 000 Reisch, Margarita Philosophica (1504). LIST OF FIGURES ix 13.3 Astronomy represented by a muse holding an 000 astrolabe, sculpted from marble by Giovanni Pisano in 1302 on the central supporting column of the pulpit for the Duomo of Pisa.