The psalter world map is able to be named generically, yet still be specific to the pages held in The British Library, because it is an anomaly of both medieval maps and medieval psalters. The psalter world map (singular) is technically two maps that are on either side of the same page. The first map is a traditional example of a mappi mundi, tripartite in design with topographical features and religious symbols. The second is also a tripartite medieval map, but is untraditional in the sense that each part is filled with names of places and descriptions rather then topographical features or symbols. In this essay I will focus on the first map due to the fact that it is one of the best surviving examples of a traditional mappi mundi, and the only known example of a mappi mundi inside of a psalter. It is an example as such due to the quality of the colours and materials employed, as well as the precision and detail of the artist who was clearly an expert in miniature pictures. The map maintains its original color and detail today because it was placed inside of a book, safe from fire, smoke, and light. One could argue that the psalter map is unique because there is a scarcity of substance to compare it to. While only eleven hundred mappae mundi are known to have survived from the middle ages, numerous psalters survive and none of them are known to contain mappae mundi. These maps varied in shapes and sizes, but all demonstrate that religious symbolism was more important in thirteenth century mapmaking than geographical accuracy. The spirituality of this particular mappi mundi is framed by an image of Christ and two angels who swing censers to who bless the world below. The map was originally the first page of the psalter before it was rebound in the late thirteenth century. The additional pages added now place the map between a series of illuminations of the life of Christ and the book of psalms. The specific placement of these illuminations highlight the purpose of the map, which is that it was not to be seen as a geographical map to be flipped past, but rather read as part of the overall religious experience. The way in which the book of psalms helped readers navigate their way to heaven is not dissimilar to the way a map helps its user navigate the world. In the middle ages religion was the structural backbone for literature, art, science, and certainly mapmaking. The psalter map is the perfect example of how thirteenth century minds married cosmology, theology, practicality, and art to represent their views of time, space, and place.
Time
The primary purpose of a psalter was to be a guide for daily devotion throughout the liturgical year. In a way, a psalter was a medieval ‘to-do’ calendars. A liturgical year, also known as a ‘church year’ or ‘Christian year’, was divided into cycles, seasons, and colours. Like a modern calendar, they included holidays such as feast days and saints days. This is why the psalter world map can be dated as early as 1262 because it includes a saint day for Richard of Chichester, who was confirmed as a saint that year. While maps in psalters are rare, the connection between maps and calendars in the medieval world was not. Medieval computas manuscripts were works that likened dates and the measurement of time to subjects including astronomy, time-calculation, theology, and geography. And while the psalter world map does liken itself to liturgical concepts such as saints days and a linear calendar, it also represents the infinity. The infinity is represented by Christ and his angels painted against a blue sky. Here Christ holds a red sphere in his hand that resembles the ‘T-O’ map below. Symbolically the world is in his hands, and physically he is outside of earthly perceptions of time. The sky he is depicted against is filled with stars, presumably, a representation of ‘firmament’ This was thought to be the static space between the planets and heaven, where there were only fixed stars. Christ is shown in firmament to represent that he is outside of mundane time, and rather in a space where time does not exist.
Space
The modern perception that those alive during the middle ages believed the earth was flat is untrue. They understood that the earth was a sphere, but for what can one can assume to be stylistic preferences they more often than not represented the earth as a circle. A good example of a medieval understanding of the earth can be seen in Gossouin de Metz’s L’image du Monde. In this text, Gossouin argues that the earth is “the shape of a ball”. He draws the earth with two figures standing back to back on the north pole. The figure facing the right is dressed in red, the other faces the left and is dressed in blue. The two figures then walk in their respective directions. One-quarter of the way around the world they are complete opposite sides of the earth. However, after walking halfway around the world they meet at the south pole. Gossouin demonstrates that this is only possible due to the earth’s spherical shape. L’image du Monde was written in 1245, seven years before the Psalter map manuscript thought to be written. The concept of a globe-earth was not radical. The cartographers, artists, writers, and poets understood the shape of the earth and the space that it was in. They imagined heaven as the space above, and hell as the space below. The map of The Neville of Hornby Hours divides reality into layers. Hell is the bottom layer, physically placed below the earth not within it, while heaven is the top layer, above the earth, the planets, and firmament.
Place
The tripartite ‘T-O’ map that Christ holds in his hands was a common view of earth in the thirteenth century. The map is named after its unique design which resembles a capital ’T’ inside of a circle or ‘O’ Within the map the world is split into the three land masses: Asia, Europe, and Africa. In ’T-O’ maps, Europe is located southwest of Asia and Africa southeast. Modern-day satellite technology that accurately maps the earth and the features which divide continents show us this isn’t true. Europe is parallel to Northern Asia, not below, and Africa is almost entirely west of the continent. However, if you rotate the map clockwise 90 degrees, you find that it more closely represents how we map the earth today. This is because medieval maps were oriented east, rather than how we orient them today to the north.
The map can be traced to London origin by its style of illumination and its calendar that specifically celebrated saints local to London and Westminster. However, the author did not place London at the center. In fact, the British Isles are hidden in the bottom left corner of the map, barely to be seen. Through the eyes of the thirteenth century church, Jerusalem was at the center of the world. But why would a city so far east be more important than the city where the map was commissioned and completed? Consider the context of the map. It was the city where Christ lived, taught, and died. Placed inside a daily devotional prayer text, it is a map filled with Biblical references. In northeast Asia, the Red Sea (fittingly coloured in red) is divided into two, to represent the story of Moses parting it in the Old Testament. In northwest Asia, the enemy nation of God’s people, Gog and Magog, are caged in the land of the unclean. The world was not only represented as Euro-Asian centric due to a Christian connection but also due to a lack of knowledge regarding the larger world. North and South America, Australia, and Antarctica were undiscovered by Europeans in the thirteenth century. In the psalter map, the scarcity of writing in Africa is comparable to the descriptiveness of features in Europe and Asia. Along the outer edge of Africa, there are fourteen strange humanoid figures. These figures represent medieval European anxiety of unexplored lands. On the outer ring of the map is a medallion feeding water from the heavens through its mouth down into the earth. The water passes through a second medallion that depicts the faces of Adam and Eve. The placement of their medallion represents their position between divinity and the earth, as they were the first humans created by God from the earth itself. From them, the water then splits into the major bodies known in the medieval world such as the River Nile, The Mediterranean Sea, and the Black Sea.