Mappae Mundi of Medieval Iceland

This book explores the Icelandic mappae mundi, revealing their geographical awareness, national self-perception, and political structures. It reproduces the canon of maps with English translations, enabling a wider understanding.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 25 September 2020
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

The Icelandic mappae mundi, created between approximately 1225 and 1400, stand as remarkable artifacts of their time, coinciding with the flourishing of the island's vernacular literary culture. These maps offer invaluable insights into the Icelanders' profound geographical awareness during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In contrast to their counterparts drawn elsewhere, such as the English Hereford mappa mundi, these Icelandic maps have received relatively limited critical attention. This book delves into the Icelandic mappae mundi not only as repositories of geographical knowledge but also as intricate expressions of Icelandic national self-perception and imagination. By situating them within their diverse literary, intellectual, and material contexts, it unveils the full extent to which Icelanders employed the cartographic medium to explore their fantasies of national origin, political structures, and place within Europe. A comprehensive photographic reproduction of the small canon of Icelandic world maps is presented, accompanied by English translations to facilitate a broader understanding of these remarkable artifacts.

Weight: 734g
Dimension: 160 x 241 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781843845690