The Map of Cosmas, the Albi Map, and the Tradition of Ancient Geography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12215802 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maja Kominko (University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 163-186 |
| Publication date | 2005-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mediterranean Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-8967 • E-ISSN: 1743-940X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09518960500481057 |
| OpenAlex | W1967802781 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 12 |
The Christian Topography, preserved in three Byzantine manuscripts dating from the ninth and eleventh centuries, was written in the middle of the sixth century in Alexandria. The scientific illustrations accompanying it in all probability hark back to the ones in the sixth-century original. Among these, the map of the earth seems to be a document specific to the culture of the Mediterranean world of late antiquity. This image is based both on biblical exegesis, mostly Syriac, and on ancient Greek science. Two centuries later, in Spain or southwestern France, the so-called Albi map was drawn. Although it appears in a different context — bound into a manuscript of miscellany, where it precedes the geographical chapter of Orosius' Historia Adversus Paganos — it shares so many features with the map in the Christian Topography that the link between the two seems almost certain. It appears that the cartographic tradition to which the two maps belong influenced the maps accompanying the Commentary on the Apocalypse of Beatus of Liébana, written and illustrated in eighth-century Spain. By analysing these maps we can gain insight into the way in which ideas derived from ancient science and Christian exegesis were merged and not only persisted well into the Middle Ages but also travelled around the Mediterranean
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Byzantine architecture · Context (archaeology · Eleventh · Exegesis · Geography · Late Antiquity · Literature · Middle Ages · Miscellany · Ninth · Byzantine Studies and History · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History
Ordering Intellectual Life
The Steppe World and the Rise of the Huns
Ascetics and Monastics in the Early Fifth Century
The Reinvention of Iran
Military Developments in the Fifth Century
Urban and Rural Economies in the Age of Attila
Selected Ancient Sources
Migrations, Ethnic Groups, and State Building
Dynasty and Aristocracy in the Fifth Century
Government and Mechanisms of Control, East and West
Real and Imagined Geography
Mapa z Albi jako geopolityczny kryptogram. Propozycja nowej interpretacji
Heresiological Labeling in Ecumenical Networking from the Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries
| Citations per year | 1.08 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2020 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |