-Welcome to Map Men. -We're the men
-And here's the map (♫) Map Men
(♫) Map Men (♫) Map Map Map Men Men Today, we're looking at this 13th century Hereford Mappa Mundi, which is Latin for "World Tablecloth". It lives on display in Hereford Cathedral, and, you may have noticed, it couldn't look less like the actual world. But, that's because this particular map was orientated with East at the top so if we rotate it... it still looks nothing like the world. Incidentally, "orientated" means "east at the top", hence "Orient". Ahaaa...! There are no oceans, and only three continents, And THIS is supposed to be Britain! Noah's Ark is in Armenia, the Garden of Eden is in Asia, and there's: It's almost a good enough reason to visit Hereford. -Hereford's nice! No, it's not. It's alright. Never been. So because nothing on this map looks like anything like anything, it makes using it to get from A to B somewhat difficult. Hi there, I'm trying to get to Babylon. Where are we? But be fair! They didn't have the scientific knowledge in those days to get things right, right? WRONG. A thousand years earlier, in around 100 AD, a Greek scholar named p-Ptolemy produced this impressive looking map of the known world. and he managed it using only equipment that looked like this: - I'm very f***ing clever But they weren't as silly as they look. Unlike maps today, this map wasn't trying to represent geographical space accurately. [whisper]
I don't think he knows where we're going In fact, all maps are a representation of a particular world view. NO! That's right. It's just like the tube map. It's great for showing what tube to get, but for everything else is rubbish. Hi there, I'm trying to get to Babylon. So, what is the Hereford Mappa Mundi trying to do? -I KNOW!
-Mark. It seeks to portray a global Christian hegemony by charting the history of creation, the soul's journey to the afterlife, detailing the Resurrection of Christ, and predicting the end of the world. -Well done.
-Thank you. So you could say the map is a guide for how to get to heaven. I think we're in Ealing. So given its aim is to map the Christian message, it actually does that pretty well. ignoring the stray mythological references to the pillars of Hercules, unicorns, and the minotaur's labyrinth Amen
- Amen And as the cartographic historian, Jerry Brotton wrote, Oh, don't be ridiculous, it's just a map! What harm could it-
