Geography and imagination in the middle Ages: biblical and christian influences on the medieval understanding of world-geography

Résumé du document

It is striking to see how much different are medieval maps from modern maps. It may lead some people to poke fun at these maps because they seem to represent the world in an archaic fashion. Nevertheless, unlike modern maps, medieval mappaemundi did not aim to give an accurate description of the world. According to Scafi: "geographical exactitude was not the main objective of these maps? (Scafi, 63, 1999). As a matter of fact the raison d'être of medieval geography was spiritual and closely related to Christianity. As a result we will firstly describe the influence of the Bible on physical geography. Secondly we will focus on the medieval representations of Eden and, thirdly, with the way Christianity perceived history. Finally we will see that, in the middle ages, the meaning of world geography and history depended ultimately on the person of Jesus Christ.

Extraits

[...] As a result interpretations of the Bible influenced undeniably medieval world-geography, literally and allegorically. It was also mirrored by the medieval representations of Eden as an earthly paradise. II/ The Garden of Eden Given that medieval geography was largely influenced by the Scriptures, medieval geographers had to deal not only with the Creation of the earth but also with the creation of the Garden of Eden depicted in the book of Genesis Lord Go planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed”, Genesis 2:8). [...]

[...] Geography and imagination in the middle Ages: biblical and christian influences on the medieval understanding of world-geography Introduction It is striking to see how much different are medieval maps from modern maps. It may lead some people to poke fun at these maps because they seem to represent the world in an archaic fashion. Nevertheless, unlike modern maps, medieval mappaemundi did not aim to give an accurate description of the world. According to Scafi: “geographical exactitude was not the main objective of these maps” (Scafi 1999). [...]

[...] Last but not least the importance of Jesus was reflected by the importance of the Holy Land in medieval geography. In Jerome's Book of the location and names of Hebrew places places out of 473 are to be found in Palestine. Besides the Holy Land drew particular attention in the middle ages because God had given it directly to Abraham all the land which you see I give to you ( Genesis 13:15) (Lozovsky 40). But the main reason why it drew so much attention was again the fact that Jesus Christ was crucified on Mount Golgotha, near Jerusalem. [...]

[...] As a result Isidore's representation of the world was directly based on his understanding of the Bible. Similarly Cosma was much influenced by the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 5:1 St Paul depicts our “earthly house” as a Consequently Cosma regarded literally the earth and the sky as a gigantic tent. To conclude a good knowledge of the Bible is fundamental to understand medieval world-geography. That is why geography remained an intellectual rather than an empirical activity in the middle Ages (Lozovsky 66). [...]

[...] However the four rivers of paradise still established a physical link between Eden and the rest of the world (Scafi 60). Besides, Paradise was all the more closely associated with the Earth since some descriptions of the world (especially of some islands) evoked to some extent the Garden of Eden (i.e. Bede's description of Britain in his Ecclesiastical history) (Lozovsky 65). This localization of Eden on maps derived obviously from a literal interpretation of the Bible, which contributed a lot to the Christianization of maps. [...]