Ebstorf Map

The Ebstorfer World Map was a medieval world map diameter of about 3.57 m to 30 sheets of parchment sewn together with Jerusalem as its center. With more than 2,300 text and picture items they had on current knowledge, the largest and most comprehensive mappa mundi ( world map ) from the Middle Ages. She burned in 1943, received are reproductions, but can not fully reproduce the original.

It was named after its locality and probable place of manufacture, the Benedictine monastery in Ebstorf Ebstorf in the Lüneburg Heath, named. There she was found in 1830 in a closet; two digits of the card were destroyed by mice repellents, including the area now Brandenburg. In addition, a 50 × 60 cm piece of card in the upper right quadrant was cut out in the territory of present-day India shortly after the rediscovery unknown reasons.

History

The author of the map a long time Gervase of Tilbury was adopted, an Anglo -Norman cleric and a Prince Henry devoted his works to the younger of England and Emperor Otto IV. Newer, particularly palaeographical studies come to different findings that exclude Gervase as authors: Jürgen Wilke argued in 2001, based on a convincing handwriting comparison with documents from the monastery archives, for a development in 1300, and stressed that it or no evidence of a connection map the monastery with Gervase of Tilbury admit. Hartmut Kugler supported this dating, based on studies in the new edition in 2007, and worked out that the card also offers no demonstrable relation to the otia imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury. He also spoke in favor of not to accept large-format template for the card, but argued that certain typographical errors in the map would be better to explain if you think yourself as a model book -format cards, their availability in Ebstorf also be more likely. However, Armin Wolf's proposal of an older, for Otto IV specific template can not be excluded. The Guelph Otto IV was from 1212 (1213) until his death in 1218 de facto regent of the Lüneburg country because of the Guelph heritage Otto " the child " was a minor.

The kept in the state archives Hanover original burned during the Second World War in October 1943 during an air raid on Hannover. From 1950 to 1953, a colored replica was created in four copies to old facsimile editions from 1891 and 1896. A digital reconstruction has been developed at the University of Erlangen and published in late 2006 in book form. The publisher Kugler estimates that these over the years researched edition reproduces about 80 % of the original. An interactive edition of the map has been prepared by the University of Lüneburg for the Internet ( see Web ); all Latin texts have been translated, so the cards can be content develop very well.

Content

The circle of the earth is shown on the map; it is aligned so that the East above. There is also the pictorial representation of paradise. In the center of the map is Jerusalem. Europe is shown in the lower left corner. There you will find cities such as Nienburg ( Saale), Soest, Lüneburg, Brunswick, Meissen, Aachen, Cologne, Kulmbach and Rome. Crete, Delos, Carpatos and the nine Aeolian Islands are shown twice for unknown reasons. Overall, the card entries share on 1,500 text entries, building 500 illustrations, 160 waters, 60 islands and mountains, 45 people and mythical creatures, with about 60 animals.

The intent of the author, it was not to make a geographically correct map of the world. The city of Rome is as almost as big as the island of Sicily. Rather, the map reflects the historical, mythological and theological knowledge this time. The world itself is compared to the body of Christ, to recognize the head, hands and feet at the edges of the map. Furthermore, the paradise that Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel are listed on the map. On the mythology and ancient mythology is based, for example, the representation of the Amazons.

Probably more previous cards have been received in the card next to written sources. To represent a new but controversial study considers the design of the geometric grid, based on the structure and classification of map could be built on the island of Reichenau (see English: orbis terrae Ordo ). A first processing would then presumably the lion takes place in Braunschweig under Henry and another in the 13th century, possibly in 1243 under Otto the Child of Lüneburg. This last version was the direct model for the Ebstorf card, which is assumed to be time for the transfer, the discovery of the tombs of the martyrs or the phase of the growing popularity of their worship. Of the presumed processing stages but there is no trace. Recent studies make it likely that the map was made in 1300 in Ebstorf monastery.