Cornerstone Lecture: The Hereford Mappa Mundi

Mapping Medieval Knowledge: The Hereford Mappa Mundi

Presented by Dr. Jamie Kemp –

The Hereford Mappa Mundi, a large world map made c.1300, is a monumental container for the monstrous and the marvelous in the Medieval world. More than a representation of geography, it was created as an encyclopedic teaching tool for visualizing what its creators thought was worth knowing about in a particular social and spiritual context.

In this lecture, we will use the great map to explore a range of topics including miraculous healings, the monsters that live at the edges of the earth, the strange beasts of foreign lands, and wondrous fictions attached to real-world places. Along the way, we’ll ask: What might the Hereford Map tell us about medieval attitudes towards knowledge? What kinds of visual and textual evidence do art historians use to interpret what a work of art means?

The event takes place in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Services Building.

About Dr. Jamie Kemp

Jamie Kemp is an art historian who specializes in image and text relationships in medieval manuscripts. Her particular focus is on the artistic influence of images found in fifteenth-century encyclopedias (particularly luxury copies of Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ De proprietatibus rerum).