The Hereford Map: Its author(s), two scenes and a border

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

Volumn 8, Issue , 1998, Pages 19-44

  Flint, Valerie I J ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61949414576     PISSN: 00804401     EISSN: 14740648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3679287     Document Type: Review

References (104)

1. Complete with its oak framework and triangular hanger, the whole would reach a height of 8 feet; W. L. Bevan and H. W. Phillott, Medieval Geography: An Essay in Illustration of the Hereford Mappa Mundi (London and Hereford, 1873), 13. Photographs reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the Hereford Mappa Mundi.
2. The most complete discussion of the map, albeit now a little out of date, is that of Bevan and Phillott, Medieval Geography.
3. An excellent introductory description, bibliography and discussion of some of the problems associated with the map is provided in G. R. Crone, The World Map by Richard of Haldingham in Hereford with Memoir by G. R. Crone (London, 1954). This memoir accompanies a large-scale collotype reproduction of the whole, on a scale of approximately 9/10 of the original. The reproduction occupies nine slightly overlapping separate sheets, and is accompanied by a tenth drawn sheet, illustrating the possible cartographical sources of the map. It is a magnificent working tool.
4. The discussion in the memoir is summarised and extended in Crone, 'New Light on the Hereford Map', The Geographical Journal, 131 (4) (1965), 446-62.
5. Brief guides are provided by A. L. Moir and M. A. Letts, The World Map in Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1971)
6. and M. Jancey, Mappa Mundi: The Map of the World in Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1987).
7. P. D. A. Harvey, Mappa Mundi. The Hereford World Map (London and Hereford, 1996).
8. 'And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled.'
9. M. A. P. d'Avezac, Note sur la Mappemonde Historiée de la Cathédrale de Hereford. Determination de sa Date et de ses Sources (Paris, 1862), 9.
10. A convenient introduction to medieval mappae mundi, with some (woefully incomplete) reference to the place of the Hereford Map among them, may be found in V.I.J. Flint, The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus (Princeton, 1992), 5-18.
11. Harvey, Mappa Mundi, 10.
12. Though built on the sites of earlier castles and finished years later, both Caernarvon and Conway were fortified in 1283 as the first foundations after the conquest of Wales. J. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901), 198.
13. Crone, The World Map, 14-22. For the possible late-thirteenth-century date of certain of the itineraries see especially Crone, 'New light', 452-62. Crone thought it may have been made in aid of persons actually going on a journey: ibid. 462.
14. Richard Gough said that it 'served antiently for an altarpiece in this church' (the church of Hereford Cathedral that is); British Topography, i (London, 1780)
15. The matter is carefully discussed by M. Kupfer, 'Medieval World Maps: Embedded Images, Interpretive Frames', Word and Image, 10(3) (1994), 262-88 (especially 271-5). She doubts the altarpiece theory and suggests instead that the map occupied some place 'within the architectural fabric' of an ecclesiastical building which was accessible to the laity.
16. For a recent discussion of the similarities between the Ebstorf and Hereford maps see P. Gautier Dalché, La 'Descriptio Mappae Mundi' de Hugues de Saint Victor (Paris, 1988), 181-92.
17. The dating of the Ebstorf map is fully discussed in H. Kugler, ed. Ein Weltbild vor Columbus. Die Ebstorfer Weltkarte (Munich, 1991).
18. This manuscript is described in V. I. J. Flint, 'The Imago Mundi of Honorius Augustodunensis', Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire, 49 (1982), 24
19. and, more fully, in M. R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, i (Cambridge, 1912).
20. Tuz ki cest estorie ont Ou oyront ou liront ou veront Prient a Jhesu en deyte De Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford eyt pite Ki lat fet e compasse Ki ioie en cel li seit done.
21. N. Denholm-Young, 'The Mappa Mundi of Richard of Haldingham at Hereford', Speculum, 32 (1957), 308 and 314.
22. e Siècle)', in La Grande Aventure de la Decouverte du Monde au Moyen Age (Greifswald, 1996), 37-9.
23. On the Arma Christi rolls see R. H. Robbins, 'The "Arma Christi" Rolls', Modern Language Review, 34 (1939), 415-21. I am grateful to Dr Jeanne Krochialis for the latter reference.
24. The most recent full discussions of Richard's career are those of Denholm-Young, 'The Mappa Mundi', 307-14
25. and W. N. Yates, 'The Authorship of the Hereford mappa mundi and the Career of Richard de Bello', Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club 41(2) (1974), 165-72.
26. The references provided by A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, i (Oxford, 1959), 556, are also helpful. Here I shall dissent, however, from the arguments of all three; this as a result of incorporating the more recent editions of Le Neve and, in particular, of returning to the sources with the invaluable help of Dr Diana Greenway. Her timely intervention, indeed, led me to rewrite this section of the paper after its delivery to the Society. I am most grateful to her.
27. The deanery of Sleaford was a large one, later divided into Old and New Sleaford, and the tidies of Holdingham formed part of the endowment of the prebend. An idea of the extent of medieval Lafford, or Sleaford, may be gained from C. R. Humphery-Smith, The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (Chichester, 1984). Holdingham had been, it seems, fully absorbed into New Sleaford by the sixteenth century, but a district so named is clearly marked on the 1891 Ordnance Survey map of Lincolnshire.
28. D. E. Greenway, John le Neve Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300, iii Lincoln (London, 1977), 20 and 73. Hereinafter Fasti.
29. It is possible that Richard held a dispensation from his duties in Lafford after 1265, to enable him to attend the schools, although no such dispensation has survived.
30. Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend, ed. F. N. Davis et al. (Lincoln, 1925), 72.
31. 'Item libet Ade de Belle [sic] capelano pro altaria sancte Lucye xiii.s.iii.d.anno octavo': Lincoln Archives Office, Cv/1. The treasurer was required, among his many other duties 'luminaria ecclesie ministrare'; C. Wordsworth and H. Bradshaw, Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, ii (Cambridge, 1897), 160.
32. I am indebted to Dr Diana Greenway for drawing my attention to his obituary, which is entered in the Lincoln Residentiary Roll of 1278, and dated 4 November. Lincoln Cathedral Archives, Cv/1. This entry remained unnoticed in all previous reconstructions of Richard's career.
33. Greenway, Fasti, iii Lincoln, 74.
34. John appointed one Robert of Whitmore to the vicarage on the death of Henry of Swindirby in 1284, and was himself dead by 1286; The Rolls and Register of Bishop Oliver Sutton 1280-1299 ed. R. M. T. Hill, i (Lincoln, 1948), 58, 90. This Robert may the same 'Master Robert de Laforda' who acquires a licence in 1289 to hold a benefice besides his canonry and Southwell prebend.
35. W. K. Bliss, Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland Papal Letters, i 1198-1304 (London, 1893). There is no mention after this of Master Richard de Bello at Lafford.
36. J. Webb, A Roll of the Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford During part of the Years 1289 and 1291 (London, Camden Society, 1853-4), 20, 151.
37. Denhom-Young ('The Mappa Mundi', 309) suggests that the meat was a haunch of venison, but the context implies a large piece of fatted calf.
38. J. M. Horn, Fasti 1300-1541, ii Hereford (London, 1962), 38;
39. Registrum Ricardi de Swinfield Episcopi Herefordensis, ed. W. W. Capes (London, 1909), 536.
40. He served, for instance, as proctor for Swinfield, with Adam of Orleton, at a synod in St Paul's in 1313. Capes, Registrum, 491.
41. D. E. Greenway, Fasti, iv Salisbury (London, 1991), 49;
42. The Rolls and Register, ed. Hill, i 229-30.
43. Greenway, Fasti, iv Salisbury, 64 and 70.
44. At the death of the previous holder, William of Savoy, Highworth had been collated to John of Frescobaldi. Bishop Simon of Ghent inhibited the institution of John, and protected Richard's rights with some ferocity against the foreigner, but the matter was not resolved until 1308, when papal intervention adjudged the benefice finally to Richard. J. M. Horn, Fasti, iii Salisbury (London, 1962), 58.
45. Richard became prominent in Salisbury affairs from his very first collation there, appearing frequently in Bishop Simon's register as a witness to institutions to canonries. See, for these preferments, Registrum Simonis de Gandavo Diocesis Saresbiriensis 1297-1315, ed. C. T. Flower and M. C. B. Dawes (Oxford, 1934), 620, 641, 719-20 and passim.
46. This too may be explained by Richard's Salisbury connections, for the bishop of Lichfield was, at the time, Roger of Longespée (bishop 1257-95), fourth (and natural) son of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury. M. Gibbs and J. Lang, The Bishops and Reform 1215-1272 (Oxford, 1934), 190 and 556.
47. He became subdeacon in 1293 and priest in 1294; Yates, 'The Authorship', 170. Yates points here to the fact that some of the secular cathedrals of England were exceedingly tolerant of deficient orders among their prebendaries, and began to correct these deficiencies only gradually, and after the condemnation of them by the second Council of Lyons, 1274. He suggests, indeed, that Richard of Lafford himself may have resigned his treasurership as a result of these corrections.
48. Greenway, Fasti, iii Lincoln, 20.
49. The Sussex branch may have produced the Richard de Bello who, in 1260, was given a dispensation to hold one benefice with cure of souls as well as the rectories of 'Kingesnade and Demecherethe' (Kingsworth and Dymchurch) in Kent he already held. Bliss, Calendar, 370. There was still a de Bello at Kingsworth in the 1290s. Calendar of Patent Rolls 1292-1301, 93. This circumstance would, according to Emden (A Biographical, 556) have made this Richard too old in 1260 to have been the same as the Richard de Bello of the later preferments. Emden decided, therefore, that the Richard of the southern branch must have been the same as the prebendary of Lafford and the maker of the map, but distinct from the later Richard de Bello who prospered. We should now, however, detach the Sussex branch from the present discussion.
50. The surname 'de Bello' or 'de la Batayl' appears quite frequently in the registers of the Lincoln diocese (see, for example, Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend, ed. Davis, 181;
51. The Roll and Register, ed. Hill, v, 32, vii, 12).
52. There was a 'Batayle Hall' in Oxford, of which one 'R. de las Bataylle' (perhaps this one or a near relative) was, in 1300, in charge of the rents; Emden, A Biographical, 566.
53. M. Prestwich, Edward I (London, 1988), 415-17.
54. Emden, A Biographical, ii 804.
55. Emden attributes the decision to Pecham, but the date, from the Annals of Dunstable, places it within Kilwardby's archiepiscopate.
56. The coadjutor is unnamed; Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, iii (Rolls Series 36, London, 1864), 268.
57. Registrum Epistolarum Fratris Johannis Peckham Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, ed. C. Y. Martin, i (London, 1882), 70-1.
58. Acta Sanctorum Oct. 1, 705b (hereafter AS).
59. Emden, A Biographical, i, 348.
60. The residence lists for 1278 show that the treasurer (unnamed) tended frequently to be in residence. Lincoln Archives Office Cv/1. On the Residentiary Rolls see also H. Bradshaw and C. Wordsworth, Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, ii (Cambridge, 1897), ccvi-ccix.
61. Webb, A Roll, lxiv.
62. Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iii, 276-9 (Annals of Dunstable).
63. A papal dispensation, though necessary, seems to have been deemed by him sufficient check to abuses, together with local episcopal supervision.
64. The generally furious opposition to the Council of Reading shows that there were many such critics; cf. F. M. Powicke and C. R. Cheney, Councils and Synods, ii 1209-1303 (Oxford, 1964), 828.
65. He begins his letter: 'Frequenter ea quae ad remedium animarum salubriter ordinantur, suadente humani generis inimico, tendunt ad noxam, et per malorum machinationes miserrrime pervertuntur', and goes on to speak of 'subversio' in connection with these schemes.
66. For an excellent account of King Edward I's hostility towards Pecham's appointment and attitudes see Prestwich, Edward I, 249-51.
67. For accounts of Cantilupe's conflict with Pecham see D. Douie, Archbishop Pecham (Oxford, 1952), 192-200
68. and R. C. Finucane, 'The Cantilupe - Pecham Controversy' in St Thomas Cantilupe Bishop of Hereford, ed. M. Jancey (Hereford, 1982), 103-23.
69. King Edward sent a letter ahead to the Cardinal Matthew Orsini asking for special attention to be given to the Bishop of Hereford. He also granted him protection and safe-conduct; Finucane, 'The Cantilupe - Pecham Controversy', 108.
70. Simon of Ghent was judge delegate in 1286 in Bishop Swinfield's prebendal litigation in Rome and, in 1288, was arbitrator in Swinfield's border disputes with the Bishop of St Asaph. In 1289 Swinfield acted as mediator at Oxford between the masters and the Bishop of Lincoln whilst Simon was still archdeacon there. Capes, Registrum, iii, 67 and 190.
71. Douie, Archbishop Pecham, 217.
72. One 'Magister Ricardus', perhaps our Richard de Bello, appears in Sutton's Register in 1294 as an official of Simon when the latter was at Oxford. The Rolls and Register, ed. Hill, vii, 55.
73. AS, 582-4. On this tomb see G. Marchall, 'The Shrine of St Thomas de Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral', Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (1930), 34-50.
74. R. C. Finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims (London, 1977), 174. The bishops, besides Swinfield, were those of Worcester, London and Rochester.
75. Registrum Thome de Cantilupo Episcopi Herefordensis (1275-1282), ed. R. G. Griffiths and W. W. Capes (London, 1907), lii. The Bishop of Worcester, Godfrey Giffard, had been chancellor to King Henry III and the Bishop of London, Richard Gravesend, was a nephew of Richard Gravesend, former Bishop of Lincoln.
76. See E. B. Fryde et al. eds., Handbook of British Chronology (Cambridge, 1996), 85.
77. Webb, The Roll, Appendix xxiv.
78. AS, 1 Oct., 705.
79. See AS 594-5 for the enormous list of gifts to the tomb and attestations of miracles preceding the commission. The 1,000 waxen models of body-parts healed and the three carriages left by the lame who were cured would themselves have required more space than the Lady Chapel could provide, not to speak of the 170 silver ships (in thanksgiving for rescues at sea), the 180 crutches and the 77 models of animals and birds brought back from the dead.
80. AS, 567-8. A child falls into the river and appears to drown. He is pulled out, his mouth is opened with a little knife to let the water out and he is held upside down and shaken. Thomas makes the sign of the cross in his general direction, and the child revives as a result of this last intervention, says the dossier.
81. Bishop of Worcester, 1236-66, at whose tomb there had also been miracles and pilgrims, it takes pains to tell us; AS, 544.
82. He was strikingly fair, for instance, over his own father's will. AS, 543.
83. AS, 544, 546.
84. AS, 565.
85. Registrum Thome, ed. Griffiths and Capes, xxxvi-xli.
86. The buying-over of the Welsh rebels, for instance, was preceded, says the dossier, by a dramatisation of the liturgy of excommunication against the sinning Welsh invaders. Interestingly, reference to some of Thomas's episcopal opponents follows this episode immediately; his battle with Richard Carew, Bishop of St David's, over Hereford's right to consecrate the church at Abbey Dore, won in fact by Cantilupe after reference to the royal courts, and Cantilupe's furious struggles with Pecham over the Council of Reading: AS, 565-7. Registrum Thome, ed. Griffith and Capes, xxxiv-xxxv.
87. AS, 566-7.
88. AS, 563-5;
89. Annales, ed. Luard, iv, 476.
90. See Webb, A Roll, i, xxiv, ii, 125 and Appendix I, 201.
91. Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edward I 1272-1279 (London, 1900), 490-1.
92. This entry gives a very full account. Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward I 1272-1281 (London, 1901), 284.
93. AS, 564: 'Et tunc dictus dominus Thomas, qui fecerat multos venatores et canes venaticos congregari, illa die ac tribus sequentibus fecit palam et publice venari in nemore supradicto. Et licte dictus dominus comes fuisset comminatus in praedicto suo recessu ... nullum tamen tunc, nec etiam postmodum opposuit impedimentum in praedictis domino Thomae vel successoribus eiusdem. Et dixit [i.e. The reporting witness] quod ista fuerunt publice et notorie facta et sunt publica et notoria in partibus illis...'.
94. Canon Moir was rightly puzzled by this scene. 'Who is this unnamed rider?'; A. L. Moir, The World Map in Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1971), 12.
95. 'The Mappa Mundi', 312.
96. Levy, 'Signes', 44-5. He makes no reference to the hunting dispute, but does hazard the guess, through the connection with Richard de Bello, that the rider might be Richard Swinfield. I am most grateful to him for allowing me to read this article in advance of its publication.
97. AS, 548.
98. H. Gough, The Itinerary of King Edward I Throughout His Reign (Paisley, 1900), i, 149-50.
99. L. E. Salzman, Edward I (London, 1968), 188.
100. The World Map, 8.
101. W. Lunt, Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge Mass., 1939), 311-17.
102. Lunt, Financial Relations, 330-8.
103. Powicke argues convincingly that Edward I was wholly sincere as a crusader; F. M. Powicke, King Henry III and The Lord Edward, ii (Oxford, 1947), 729-30.
104. Morgan argues for a Lincoln origin for the map; N. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts ii 1250-1285 (London, 1988), 198. Lincoln certainly figures prominently upon it. In 1280 the bones of St Hugh of Lincoln (canonised 1220) were translated to a new setting, in the presence of Bishop Oliver Sutton and the king. The map may have been begun, then, as a decoration for St Hugh's tomb. I suspect, indeed, that it was, but the further examination of this hypothesis must await another occasion. In further support of a Northern origin we might note that the Yorkshire river system is particularly accurately traced on the map.