Ebstorf Map
{{Short description|Medieval European world map}}
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Image:Ebstorfer Weltkarte 2.jpg
The Ebstorf Map was an example of a {{lang|la|mappa mundi}} (a medieval European map of the world). It was made by Gervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man as Gervase of Tilbury,{{cite book |title=Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor |author=Gervase of Tilbury |author-link=Gervase of Tilbury |others=S. E. Banks, J. W. Binns |orig-date=Approximately 1211 |date=30 May 2002 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-820288-1 |location=Oxford |pages=xxxiv–xxxvi |oclc=47183479 }} some time between 1234 and 1240.
Description
The map was found in a convent in Ebstorf, northern Germany, in 1843.{{Cite book|last1=Bildhauer|first1=Bettina|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52878148|title=The Monstrous Middle Ages|last2=Mills|first2=Robert|date=2003|publisher=University of Wales Press|others=International Medieval Congress|isbn=0-7083-1821-5|location=Cardiff|pages=77|oclc=52878148}} It was a very large map, painted on 30 goatskins sewn together and measuring around {{convert|3.6|x|3.6|m|ft}}{{snd}}a greatly elaborated version of the common medieval tripartite map (T and O), centered on Jerusalem with east at the top.
The head of Christ was depicted at the top of the map, with his hands on either side and his feet at the bottom.{{Cite book|last=Edson|first=Evelyn|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38474419|title=Mapping time and space : how medieval mapmakers viewed their world|date=1997|publisher=British Library|others=British Library|isbn=0-7123-4535-3|location=London|pages=138–139|oclc=38474419}} Rome is represented in the shape of a lion, and the map reflects an evident interest in the distribution of bishoprics.
There was text around the map, which included descriptions of animals, the creation of the world, definitions of terms, and a sketch of the more common sort of T and O map with an explanation of how the world is divided into three parts. The map incorporated both pagan and biblical history.
The original was destroyed in 1943 during Allied bombing of Hanover in World War II.{{cite journal |title=The Ebstorf Map: tradition and contents of a medieval picture of the world |first=G. |last=Pischke |editor-first=G. P. |editor-last=Gregori |year=2014 |journal=History of Geo- and Space Sciences |volume=5 |issue=2 |publisher=Copernicus Publications |pages=155–161 |doi=10.5194/hgss-5-155-2014|doi-access=free |bibcode=2014HGSS....5..155P }} However, a set of black-and-white photographs taken in 1891 of the original map survives, and several colour facsimiles of it were made before it was destroyed.
Authorship
The arguments for Gervase of Tilbury being the mapmaker are based on the name Gervase, which was an uncommon name in northern Germany at the time, and on some similarities between the world views of the mapmaker and Gervase of Tilbury. The editors of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition of Gervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperialia conclude that although their being the same man is an "attractive possibility", to accept it requires "too many improbable assumptions".
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{Cite book |last=Woodward |first=David |title=The History of Cartography |volume=1 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |place= Chicago |year=1987 |editor-last=Harley |editor-first=J. B. |chapter=Chapter 18: Medieval Mappaemundi |editor-last2=Woodward |editor-first2=David |chapter-url=https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V1/HOC_VOLUME1_chapter18.pdf |isbn=0-226-31633-5}}
External links
{{Commonscat|Ebstorf world map}}
- [https://archive.today/20121128233759/asia-for-teachers.educ.utas.edu.au/CD/cdx/units/unit1/module1/lernact1/mapchrst.jpg Higher quality image of the map]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20210301172928/http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/224mono.html Detailed description of the map]
- [https://warnke.web.leuphana.de/hyperimage/EbsKart/index.html#O9999 Interactive Ebstorf map] {{in lang |de}}
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Category:Historic maps of the world
Category:Culture of Lower Saxony
Category:1943 disestablishments in Germany