Hereford Mappa Mundi
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The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a T and O map dating to ca. 1300. It is currently on display in Hereford Cathedral in England.
The map is signed by one "Richard of Haldingham or Lafford". Drawn on a single sheet of vellum, it measures 158 cm by 133 cm. The writing is in black ink, with additional red and gold, and blue or green for water (with the Red Sea coloured red).
Jerusalem is drawn at the centre of the circle, East is on top, showing the Garden of Eden in a circle at the edge of the world. Great Britain and Ireland are drawn at the north-western border (bottom left).
The map is based on traditional accounts and earlier maps such as the one of the Beatus of Liébana codex; it does not correspond entirely to the geographical knowledge of the 1300s. Note, for example, that the Caspian Sea connects to the encircling Ocean (upper left). This is in spite of William of Rubruk's having reported it to be landlocked in 1255, i.e. several decades before the map's creation. The "T and O" shape does also not necessarily imply that its creators believed in a flat Earth. The spherical shape of the Earth was already known to the ancient Greeks and Romans and the idea was never entirely forgotten even in the Middle Ages, and thus the circular representation may be considered a conventional attempt at a projection: in spite of the acceptance of a spherical Earth, only the "upper" parts were believed to be inhabitable (see antipodes), so that the circular representation remained adequate.
