Menu
Aeon
DonateNewsletter
SIGN IN
Email
Save
Post
Share

Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!

Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.

The famed medieval map that stretched beyond Earth to heaven, history and myth

Save

Thought to have been created around 1300 CE, the Hereford Mappa Mundi is the largest surviving complete map of the medieval world. Named for Hereford Cathedral where the map is housed today, the extraordinary document offers insight into the minds of Christian Europeans in the Middle Ages, revealing the extent to which their understanding of the world was shaped by stories from the Bible and the Classics. In this video essay, the US graphic designer and video producer Jeremy Shuback explores the map’s structure and the breadth of its illustrations, detailing how this imaginative piece of medieval cartography binds history, geography, mythology and religion to form an invaluable sketch of the Middle Ages.

Director: Jeremy Shuback

16 March 2023
Email
Save
Post
Share