Northern Eurasia in Medieval Cartography: Inventory, Texts, Translation, and Commentary (Terrarvm Orbis)

Scythia and the islands in the ocean, the farthest northern and northeastern regions of the world known to ancient and medieval geographers, roughly correspond to modern-day Scandinavia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and central Asia. Those areas figured prominently in cartography of the Middle Ages. The mythical island of Scandza, the land of the Amazons, the apocalyptic tribes of Gog and Magog, and other traditional symbols of chaos and barbarity existed side by side and often merged with new knowledge about people, cities, and states. The book, originally published in Russian as Kartografiia khristianskogo srednevekovia (Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 1999), offers an analysis of 198 Western European and Byzantine maps that date between the eighth and thirteenth centuries and contain information about the north and northeast of the inhabited world. The maps are divided into fifteen groups. Each group of maps is discussed in its separate chapter and all the relevant place names and other legends on the maps are transcribed and translated into English. Included in the book are comprehensive glossaries, which comprise the names of persons, places, ethnicities, and animals, and provide commentaries on the cartographic legends. The book features reproductions of individual maps and their details. Preface 9 Introduction 10 Ch. 1. T maps with Lucanian nomenclature 27 Ch. 2. T maps with Sallustian nomenclature 33 Ch. 3. Other T maps 59 Ch. 4. Maps of the inhabited world with the Maeotian swamps at the centre 75 Ch. 5. Diagrams that contrast the extreme North with the South of the known world 81 Ch. 6. Maps from manuscripts of the 'Christian Topography' 87 Ch. 7. Western European maps with four gulfs 93 Ch. 8. Maps with four gulfs combined with the T structure Ch.9. Maps of narrow gulfs 121 Ch.10. Maps with a detailed coastline of the Ebstorf-Hereford type 125 Ch. 11. Illustrations to Beatus of Liebana's 'Commentary on the Apocalypse' 171 Ch. 12. Ripoll map (Vatican city, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat.123, fols 143v-144) 181 Ch. 13. Lambert of Saint-Omer maps 185 Ch. 14. Matthew Paris maps 195 Ch.15 Climate maps 201 Glossary of geographical, ethnic, personal, and animal names 207 Bibliography 257 Index of manuscripts 289 General Gazetter 294 Plates 325 "Originally published in Russian as Kartografiia khristianskogo srednevekovia (Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 1999), offers an analysis of 198 Western European and Byzantine maps that date between the eighth and thirteenth centuries and contain information about the north and northeast of the inhabited world. The maps are divided into fifteen groups. Each group of maps is discussed in its separate chapter and all the relevant place names and other legends on the maps are transcribed and translated into English. Included in the book are comprehensive glossaries, which comprise the names of persons, places, ethnicities, and animals, and provide commentaries on the cartographic legends. The book features reproductions of individual maps and their details"--Back cover