Right before winter break, my Medieval Research Skills class took a field trip to the Hereford Cathedral library. Hereford is a town just outside of Wales. The cathedral there dates from 1079, though there was probably a wooden structure pre-dating the current stone one. Hereford Cathedral is especially notable for two things: the Mappa Mundi, and the chained library.
Mappa Mundi is exactly what it says: a map of the world. It depicts the world in both a geographical and a spiritual manner. The Hereford Cathedral website describes it fairly succinctly:
"The Hereford Mappa Mundi is unique in Britain's heritage; an outstanding treasure of the medieval world, it records how thirteenth-century scholars interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms.
The map bears the name of its author 'Richard of Haldingham or Lafford' (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire). Recent research suggests a date of about 1300 for the creation of the map.
Mappa Mundi is drawn on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin) measuring 64" by 52" (1.58 x 1.33 metres), tapering towards the top with a rounded apex. The geographical material of the map is contained within a circle measuring 52" in diameter and reflects the thinking of the medieval church with Jerusalem at the centre of the world.
Superimposed on to the continents are drawings of the history of humankind and the marvels of the natural world. These 500 or so drawings include of around 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world and 8 pictures from classical mythology.
Christopher de Hamel, a leading authority on medieval manuscripts, has said of the Mappa Mundi, '... it is without parallel the most important and most celebrated medieval map in any form, the most remarkable illustrated English manuscript of any kind, and certainly the greatest extant thirteenth-century pictorial manuscript.' "
Photo from www.wikipedia.org
Big deal in the medieval academic world. Big. Huge.
Photo from www.herefordcathedral.org
The chained library, while not as unique, is nevertheless awesome. It made me feel like I was in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts.
The books at Hereford date from as far back as the 1100s. The chains, however, are from the 17th century. The shelves were ordered to be made in 1611. As books were extremely valuable items, they were chained to the desks to prevent them from being stolen. If you'll notice, the books are shelved with the spine inward, and the pages facing out. It wasn't until later centuries that publishers started printing the titles of books on the spines--if at all, they were written on the outer edge of the pages. Books were also stored flat, not upright, and often in locked chests rather than on shelves, as there was less chance of the books being damaged (or stolen).
Photo from www.herefordcathedral.org
Books in the Hereford Cathedral chained library
Photo from www.firstnews.co.uk
After a tour of the library and some time spent looking at Mappa Mundi, our class went to the archives, where we spent the afternoon poring over 12th- to 15th-century books and documents. Really, really cool.
Best of all, I got to study the oldest book there: a 12th-century "Glossed Book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes" with 8th-century flyleaves. 8th-century flyleaves! With the high cost of parchment, bookbinders were big into recycling, taking apart old books and using individual folios (pages) from them as flyleaves/end leaves for new books. They sometimes are more exciting to scholars than the book itself. Case in point: my flyleaves were a commentary on a work by Geoffrey of Monmouth, one of the earliest authors of the King Arthur legends we have.
One of the faculty members accompanying us went around taking candid photos of us all. Not everyone could make the field trip, but here are the ones who did:
Some close-ups:
Rob and Cayley
Magda and Emily
Natasha and I
No comments:
Post a Comment