Mappa Mundi c1300

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	item:- private collection (257) image:- ©  see bottom of page
	Map, manuscript on vellum, Mappa Mundi, at Hereford Cathedral, drawn by Richard de Bello, of Holdingham and Sleaford, Lincolnshire etc, late 13th century. This is a medieval TO map; drawn from a religious stance. The British Isles is drawn in the lower left corner, distorted to modern eyes. The map is now a dull thing of browns and blacks; but wonderful. In its new state the parchment would have been much whiter. The black of the mineral based ink has probably survived well, but the vegetable dye colours have faded or altered. The bright green sea has become a brown. Blue rivers have flaked away. Only a little of the gilding remains.
		Mappa Mundi c1300
	map feature (from an english point of view):-	labelled borders (Latin) & up is NE (British Isles) & rivers & relief & scallop hills & country & settlements (Settlements are drawn as miniature pictures of towns with walls, buildings, towers, etc, of various grandeur; labelled with names. Twentysix towns are shown in the British Isles. The map tends to include places of ecclesiastical significance rather than commercial significance. But notice in the British Isles the castles of Caernarvon and Conway, built after the conquest of Wales by Edward I, 1282. Lincoln is an elaborate castle on its hill with town houses down the slope. Hereford seems to have been added later, and is small.)
	inscription:-	ms lower left corner poem in Old French translation:- May all who this fair historie / Shal either hear, or read, or see, / Pray to Jesus Christ in Deity, / Richard of Haldingham and Lafford to pity; / That to him for aye be given, / The joy and happiness of heaven.
	wxh, sheet:-	133x158cm

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