Issue link: https://slung.uberflip.com/i/1061738
10 Number 3, Fall 2002 cartographic perspectives and, possibly, Carolingian models (McGurk 1983, 86; Harvey 1991, 21-26; Delano-Smith and Kain 1999, 34), the Sawley map "is generally accepted as the earliest surviving English example of a mappamundi" (Delano-Smith and Kain 1999, 37, emphasis mine). Drawn most likely at Durham Cathe- dral Priory and then transferred to Sawley Abbey in Yorkshire sometime around 1200, this mappamundi appears as the frontispiece to a copy of the immensely popular eleventh-century encyclopedia, the Imago Mundi, by Honorius Augustodunensis (Harvey 1997, 33, 36-37; Delano-Smith and Kain 1999, 36). Like the Anglo-Saxon mappamundi, the Sawley map is ori- ented to the east, the words Oriens and "Paradise" being visible at the top. But this time the world is an oval with four angels gracing its corners. The angels should not lure us into thinking that the Sawley map is more sentimental than the Psalter map. They probably symbolize the apocalyp- tic events preceding the Last Judgment: in Revelation, four angels appear at the four corners of the earth after the Lamb has broken the sixth seal, and together they hold back the four winds (7:1). On the Sawley map, the angel in the northeast (top left) points toward Gog and Magog, warning that the man-eating hordes of Cain's gens imunda ("impure race") will soon break free from their Caspian confines to ensure the world's demise (Rev- elation 20:7-9). More foreboding still are the angels at the bottom of the map: stationed at the western edge of the world, they represent the end of time and the imminent demise of the world as we know it. The final book of Honorius' text details the medieval belief, popular since Augustine and Bede, that history has followed a westward course since the creation of man. At the end of the sixth age will come the apocalypse, the six-day de- struction of the world, followed by the Last Judgment on the seventh. On the Sawley map, the angel in the southeast corner carries a book. Whether this book represents Honorius' text, the Book of Revelation, or the Bible itself doesn't matter; each reminds us that the faithful alone will triumph over this terrifying eventuality. 10 Closely associated with the Sawley map in content is the monumen- tal Hereford map in Hereford Cathedral (Bevan and Phillott [1873] 1969, chpt.1, sect.14.3). Wonderfully preserved and detailed, the Hereford map is the only surviving example of what may be a typically English style of mappaemundi from the thirteenth century—the large world maps displayed on palace or abbey walls and used, perhaps, as altar-pieces or decorations (Harvey 1991, 25; Edson 1997, 141). Because of its size, the Hereford map is a veritable encyclopedia of legends, cities, and creatures, presenting the interconnectedness of time and space more graphically than any other mappamundi (Figure 6, page 70). Not only do we see mythical monsters and historical cities beside scenes showing Christ's crucifixion and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise; the map also demonstrates that civilization began in the east and has followed a "linear" course west through the center of the known world. The Garden of Eden represents the beginning of life and the knowledge that precipitated our fall; the Tower of Babel, the scattering of peoples throughout the earth; Jerusalem, the central pivot of human history; Delos, the Greek navel of the world, pictured beside a seductive mermaid; Rome, the imperial city turned capital of the Church; and the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar), the traditional western limit of man's knowledge of the world. The placement of these areas on a vertical line running through the center of the Hereford map highlights their temporal and geographic import for mankind (Moir 1970, 13; Westrem 2001, xxxii; cf. Edson 1997, 26, 34-35, 50, 140-144; and see Haft 2003). Details in "Mappemounde" reveal Birney's familiarity with the Her- eford map. Two dracones ("dragons") appear in Taphana (Ceylon/Sri "The angels should not lure us into thinking that the Sawley map is more sentimental than the Psalter map. They probably symbolize the apocalyptic events preceding the Last Judgment." "The final book of Honorius' text details the medieval belief, popular since Augustine and Bede, that history has followed a westward course since the creation of man." "Details in 'Mappemounde' reveal Birney's familiarity with the Hereford map."

