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[Reproduction of the 13th Century Ebstorf Medieval World Map c. 1234-1240] MILLER, Dr. Konrad [Stuttgart: 1898] Monialium Ebstorfensium Mappammundi quae exeunte saeculo XIII. videtur picta. Hannoverae nunc adservatur, edidit Conradus Miller. Jos. Roth’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart. Chromolith Kunstandstalt v. Eckstein & Stahle, Stuttgart. Editio altera 1898. [Map of the world at the end of the 13th century from the convent at Ebstorf. Now preserved in Hanover, published by Konrad Miller. Jos. Roth Publishing Company, Stuttgart. Chromolithograph Kunstandstalt v. Eckstein & Stahle, Stuttgart. 1898 Edition.] 46 x 41 ½ inches (117 x 105.5 cm) overall, 39 inches (99 cm.) in diameter. Chromolithograph with areas printed in gold; ex-folding map professionally mounted on new linen; a few areas of mended fold wear, light staining mainly to outer margins, else excellent with vibrant color. The now lost, Ebstorf 13th-century mappa mundi, i.e. medieval world map, was one of the greatest cartographic treasures to ever surface, albeit briefly, from the Medieval period; it was both the largest of this type of map known, and, with its hundreds of vignettes, it was certainly among the visually richest. The original measured 12-feet square, was drawn on several vellum sheets, and is thought to have been produced between 1234 and 1240. It was discovered in the Benedictine abbey of Ebstorf in 1830, hence the map’s name, but it was tragically destroyed in an air raid in Hanover in 1943. The original was photographed in around 1890 but only in black and white. It is thus only through the colored reproductions of this map published in the years after that we have a sense of the visual splendor of the map. The reproduction of the map offered here is regarded as the finest of these. It was hand drawn and colored and then finely chromolithographed, with some areas in gold ink. Its production was overseen by a prominent scholar of the map, Dr. Konrad Miller, published a six-volume scholarly work on Latin maps of the Middle Ages. He was a German Roman Catholic theologian, natural scientist and cartographic historian based in Stuttgart. The original map’s authorship has been tenuously linked to Gervase of Tilbury (c. 1160-1235?); see Woodward for more on this. Medieval mappae mundi sought to integrate what was known at the time of geographic reality into a Christian framework. In the Ebstorf map this is quite literally done by displaying the map within the body of Christ: His head is seen at the top alongside the Garden of Eden, the hands bearing the stigmata are along the sides, and His feet are at the bottom. As is also characteristic of these maps, Jerusalem is the center, here shown in gold with an eight-sided wall. These maps are also referred to “T-O maps,” a descriptor of the framework used to configure the world’s geography in them, as explained in a Duke University newsletter describing the work offered here: Although Christian in much of its iconography, the Ebstorf map embodies the Greek conception of the world as a flat disc and includes imagery and data from classical and other secular sources. At the center of the map, near Jerusalem are the Tower of Babel, Bethlehem (marked with the Star of David), Sodom and Gomorrah, and Mt. Sinai. Noah’s Arc can be seen near the center of the upper left quadrant. Africa and northern are both hinterlands illustrated with mythical creatures and legends. In Africa, a tribe of dwarfs ride crocodiles. In Asia, two Amazonian women guard their citadel. Africa, especially its eastern part is highly distorted and is forcibly merged with the Near East in the lower right portion. The British Isles are shown at the bottom just left of center. Chinese figures are represented by two figures bending to gather silk. In the Indus Valley we see opium eaters, people who stare at the sun all day (gymnosophists), as well as a strange tribe which subsists only on the scent of apples. Alexander the Great is seen consulting the Oracle of the Sun and the Moon. While merchants traveled quite widely throughout the Middle Ages—several images on the map were derived from the accounts of their journeys-- travel for common people, if at all, meant pilgrimages. Medieval mappa mundi thus also provided a geographic context for pilgrims and possibly even illustrated the potential appeal of travel. Woodward observed that the author of the original map stated in a note in the right upper right of the map that “’it can be seen that [this work] is of no small utility to its readers, giving directions for travelers, and the things on the way that most pleasantly delight the eye.’” Woodward et al, The History of Cartography, vol. 1, pp. 307-309; Eisenbeis, Kathleen. Duke University Library Newsletter. New Series No. 29. October 1982. Durham, North Carolina. pp. 18-20; Online: Archive.org: https://archive.org/stream/dukeuniversityli7186/dukeuniversityli7186_djvu.txt (2 January 2020); “Konrad Miller.” Wikipedia. 26 November 2018; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Miller (3 January 2020); “Monialium Ebstorfensium mappa mundi…” Views: Portraying Place and Space, Stanford University Libraries. 22 January 2017. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/views-portraying-place-space/browse/cosmological-views (2 January 2020); “Monialium Ebstorfensium mappa mundi…” Yale University Library. https://search.library.yale.edu/ca
“It represents one class of map referred to in the history of cartography as the “T-O” maps. The T-O structure is clearly visible: the perpendicular stroke of the T running from the Don to the Nile rivers and the horizontal stroke the axis of the Mediterranean. The O represents the boundary of the known world. The T also divides the map into the three then-known continents, Asia (the East) at the top, Europe at the left and Africa on the right…Towns are shown by towers, a common medieval manuscript symbol, and the medieval forms of place names are used, making this map particularly noteworthy.” (This newsletter also described their example of the map, the same as offered here, as among the library’s most important acquisitions.)
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