On the original map of the royal forest of Dartmoor : illustrating the perambulation of Henry III., 1240 / by C. Spence Bate.

  • Charles Spence Bate
Date:
[1872]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the original map of the royal forest of Dartmoor : illustrating the perambulation of Henry III., 1240 / by C. Spence Bate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    few are written without labels, but these are chiefly the names of churches. The writing and general work of the map that relates to the Forest is much more carefully executed than that beyond the Duchy limits, and some parts appear as if they had been executed after the map had been completed. In many places beneath the paint, lines can be seen which suggest the idea that the map has been corrected. I presume from the date of the Perambulation that the map must be one of the oldest extant. There is in Hereford Cathedral one of near the same age. The following account of it, copied from Handbook to the Cathedrals of England, Western Division, p. 103, has been sent to me by Mr. G. Pvcroft, may be of interest for comparison: Description of an olcl Map of the World, preserved in the Library of Hereford Cathedral. w Here is preserved the remarkable Map of the World, which is one of the most valuable relics of mediaeval geography. It wTas the work of a certain Richard of Haldingham and of Lafford (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire), who has commemorated himself in the following verses:— “ Tuz ki cest estorie ont Ou oyront, ou luront, ou veront, Pi’ient a Jhesu en deigte, De Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford eyt pite Ki l'at fet e compasse Ke joie en cel le seit done.” The latter part of the thirteenth century is the date which has usually been assigned to it; but M. de Avezac, Presi- dent of the Geographical Society of Paris, who has recently examined the map with much care, arrives, from internal evidence, at the conclusion that it was designed at the be- ginning of the year 1314. The map itself (drawn on thick vellum, and glued to a framework of oak) is founded on the mediaeval belief that all geographical knowledge resulted from the observations of three philosophers (here named Nichodoxus, Theodotus, and Policlitus), who were sent forth by Augustus Caesar to survey the three divisions of the world, when it was about to be taxed at the birth of our Lord. The Emperor is accordingly figured giving his direc- tions to the philosophers. The world is represented as round, mid surrounded by the ocean. At the top of the map, which
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