Map · Latin
Psalter World Map (mappa mundi in a Latin Psalter), BL Add MS 28681, f. 9r
Anonymous (English, London?)
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
Retrospective compilation: schematic T-O style mappa mundi drawing on Isidorean and Orosian geography, possibly copying the lost Westminster Palace map of Henry III; no observation.
Research notes
- Possibly a reduced copy of the lost Henry III Westminster map (Commons description repeats this hypothesis). The BL's own digitised-manuscripts viewer has been offline since the October 2023 cyber attack; the Commons credit line states the BL provided the file. Legacy BL URLs recorded in L008 remain dead.
- Lead L008 resolved to an open Commons copy; the BL's current image record is not yet restored online. The verso (f. 9v) carries a list-type map, not sampled.
Why it matters
Earliest mappa mundi in the inventory (c.1265): shows the pre-Mongol-contact, Latin-Christian image of northern Asia (Gog and Magog walled in the north-east) that later mapmakers transferred to 'Tartaria'. Useful as the baseline against which Vesconte, Hereford, Ebstorf and the Catalan Atlas can be compared.
Places named
Whole inhabited world with East at top; northern Asia with Gog and Magog enclosure; Scythia; India; Jerusalem centred
Who copied whom
Later in the chain
- Hereford Mappa Mundi M038, c. 1300same tradition (stated)Orosius/Isidore mappa mundi tradition (Hereford cf. Psalter)