Marginalia in cARTography.pdf Oct. 2014 | Page 12

Fig. 2. The Psalter map (ca. 1265). God embraces and blesses the world,
and two basilisks, symbols of evil, are being crushed. The map is oriented
to the east, with Terrestrial Paradise (with Adam and Eve) at the top,
Jerusalem in the center, and the monstrous races at the southern edge of
the world. © The British Library Board, ADD 28681 f. 9r.

Many medieval maps include the image of God embracing the
world or the divine realm around it (fig. 2). The mappamundi
by the Venetian Giovanni Leardo made around 1452 (plate 5)
shows rings surrounding the map with information on how to
determine the dates of Easter; the names of the months; the day,
year, and minute when the sun enters each sign of the zodiac; the
phases of the moon; the dates on which Sundays fall in various
months and years; the length of respective days; and saints’ days
and festivals. And at the very margin of the map are the symbols
of the four evangelists: St. Mark (as a lion), St. Luke (bull), St.
Matthew (angel), and St. John (eagle).
Leardo’s world is tripartite; that is, it is formed by the three
continents known in the Middle Ages: Asia, Europe, and Africa.
It is oriented to the east, with the Terrestrial Paradise at the
top, and Jerusalem is in the center of the world (see these same
characteristics in another medieval mappamundi, the Psalter
map, fig. 2). It follows the zonal climatic theory, and therefore
the northern and southern regions are described as uninhabitable
because of the extreme cold and heat, respectively. Leardo’s map
is a clear example of a late medieval mappamundi in which the
influence of the more realistic cartography of nautical charts is
mixed with traditional geographic and theological ideas.
The most popular map in the Middle Ages was the socalled T-O map. Its name derives from its schematic tripartite
shape, which was explained in the late fourteenth century

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