Ebstorf Map

[2] It was a very large map, painted on 30 goatskins sewn together and measuring around 3.6 by 3.6 metres (12 ft × 12 ft) – a greatly elaborated version of the common medieval tripartite map (T and O), centered on Jerusalem with east at the top.

The head of Christ was depicted at the top of the map, with his hands on either side and his feet at the bottom.

[3] Rome is represented in the shape of a lion, and the map reflects an evident interest in the distribution of bishoprics.

[4] However, a set of black-and-white photographs taken in 1891 of the original map survives, and several colour facsimiles of it were made before it was destroyed.

The editors of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition of Gervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperialia conclude that although their being the same man is an "attractive possibility", to accept it requires "too many improbable assumptions".