Title Details
256 Pages
23.4 x 15.6 cm
23 colour illus.
Series: Studies in Old Norse Literature
Series Vol. Number:
6
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
The Mappae Mundi of Medieval Iceland
- Description
- Contents
- Author
- Reviews
An innovative, interdisciplinary approach to the understudied Icelandic mappae mundi.
The Icelandic mappae mundi (maps of the world), drawn between c. 1225 and c. 1400, are contemporary with the breathtaking rise of its vernacular literary culture, and provide important insights into the Icelanders' capacious geographical awareness in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. However, in comparison with those drawn elsewhere, among them the English Hereford mappa mundi, they have received little critical attention.
This book explores the Icelandic mappae mundi not only for what they reveal about the Icelanders' geographical awareness, but as complex registers of Icelandic national self-perception and imagining, situating them in their various literary, intellectual, and material contexts. It reveals fully how Icelanders used the cartographic medium to explore fantasies of national origin, their political structures, and place in Europe. The small canon of Icelandic world maps is reproduced here photographically, with their texts presented alongside English translations to enable a wider understanding.
The Icelandic mappae mundi (maps of the world), drawn between c. 1225 and c. 1400, are contemporary with the breathtaking rise of its vernacular literary culture, and provide important insights into the Icelanders' capacious geographical awareness in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. However, in comparison with those drawn elsewhere, among them the English Hereford mappa mundi, they have received little critical attention.
This book explores the Icelandic mappae mundi not only for what they reveal about the Icelanders' geographical awareness, but as complex registers of Icelandic national self-perception and imagining, situating them in their various literary, intellectual, and material contexts. It reveals fully how Icelanders used the cartographic medium to explore fantasies of national origin, their political structures, and place in Europe. The small canon of Icelandic world maps is reproduced here photographically, with their texts presented alongside English translations to enable a wider understanding.
Introduction
The Icelandic hemispherical world maps
The Icelandic zonal map
The two maps from Viðey
Iceland in Europe
Forty Icelandic Priests and a Map of the World
Conclusion
Map Texts and Translations
Bibliography
The Icelandic hemispherical world maps
The Icelandic zonal map
The two maps from Viðey
Iceland in Europe
Forty Icelandic Priests and a Map of the World
Conclusion
Map Texts and Translations
Bibliography
"A book that is as important as it is interesting." IMCoS Journal
"This study of mappae mundi and their concomitant texts will certainly be useful to future scholars of all kinds in the tracing of medieval sources and thus improving the "maps" of the routes of ideas bridging the North Atlantic Ocean in the Middle Ages. Kedwards deserves praise for his perseverance in sharing his vast knowledge with us in this fine book." SPECULUM
"Kedwards' study is an important contribution to the field of medieval geographies, this book also shows that maps are so much more than geographical documents and should be considered as part of the wider cultural record." Victoria E. H. Walker, Nottingham Medieval Studies
Hardcover
9781843845690
September 2020
$115.00 / £80.00
Ebook (EPDF)
9781787447912
September 2020
£24.99 / $29.95
Title Details
256 Pages
2.34 x 1.56 cm
23 colour illus.
Series: Studies in Old Norse Literature
Series Vol. Number:
6
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
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