Maps, Mongols and the neoclassical moment: north-east Asia in thirteenth-century mappaemundi

Rouse, Christopher (2024). Maps, Mongols and the neoclassical moment: north-east Asia in thirteenth-century mappaemundi. University of Birmingham. M.Phil.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the construction and reception of North-East Asia on three thirteenth-century mappaemundi (Christian world maps) – the Ebstorf, Psalter and Hereford maps – assessing their creation, symbolism and developments across a century of new threats from and new knowledge about Asia. The thesis comprises two thematic and three chronological, map-focused chapters and presents three main interrelated arguments about how the maps’ makers understood and used this region. Firstly, in a period of challenges from Mongol invasions and losses in the Christian Levant, the mappaemundi consistently present a morally and culturally flawed North-East Asia which champions and consoles Latin Christianity by comparison. Secondly, the mappaemundi can be understood as neoclassical; the cartographers used antique Roman sources but, rather than simply copying these older texts’ information wholesale, the maps’ makers creatively adapted classical knowledge to suit medieval ends, a process which included omissions of both antique and contemporary information. Thirdly, the mappaemundi exhibit change and historical contingency across the century. The barbarian lands of Scythia on the Hereford mappamundi, drawn c.1300, are extensive, fierce and bordering on Europe; conversely, earlier maps have a small, peripheral Scythia. The thesis presents the Mongol invasions as the catalyst for change here, the cartographers acknowledging the seismic changes in geographical thought while accommodating the Mongols within a comfortable formula.
To develop these arguments, the thesis analyses the construction and symbolism of important constituent themes of North-East Asia: urbanism (deliberately minimised in Asia), barbarianism and the apocalyptic Gog and Magog, each of which contributed to a savage, morally flawed land. In sum, the thesis argues that these propagandistic mappaemundi were, in their depiction of North-East Asia, more creative and historically sensitive than has previously been suggested. The cartographers displayed authorial agency in adapting old and new material to create maps which suited the demands and contexts of their day, creating a specifically cartographical North-East Asia to assert Christian supremacy against a range of contemporary challenges.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Phil.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Phil.

Supervisor(s):