Hereford Mappa Mundi

Sources for the information presented on the map include the Alexander tradition, medieval bestiaries and legends of monstrous races, as well as the Bible.

Although the evidence is circumstantial, recent work links the map with the promotion of the cult of Thomas de Cantilupe.

Potentially antisemitic images include a horned Moses and a depiction of Jews worshipping the Golden Calf in the form of a Saracen devil.

The map may also reflect very patriarchal views of women as inherently sinful, including figures such as the wife of Lot being turned into a pillar of salt for gazing at the city of Sodom.

Cantilupe was known for his dislike of Jews; in historian Debra Strickland's opinion he was regarded as misogynistic even by the standards of his own time.

The map would have functioned as an object to show people visiting Cantilupe's cult, and guides would have described and helped visitors to understand the content.

[4] This gives the map particular associations with the cult of the Virgin Mary, which was very prominent in Christian worship at the time, and highly developed at Hereford.

[5] There is an emerging consensus that the map played a role in promoting the cult of Thomas de Cantilupe,[6] who was later accepted as a Saint by the Holy See.

It is likely that guides, whether highly educated and literate, or less so, would help ensure those looking at the map were able to interpret the figures in the correct manner.

"[8] Dan Terkla places the map in the north transept's east wall next to de Cantilupe's shrine.

Cantilupe was "an inveterate enemy of the Jews",[12] and his demands that they be expelled from England were cited in the evidence presented for his canonization.

In Debra Strickland's view, the map reflects a post-Expulsion narrative, conflating the Exodus of the Bible with the contemporary expulsion, and as outlined below, setting out why Christians should believe that Jews are deserving of such punishment.

Richard of Haldingham, who died in 1278, may have been a senior relative of de Bello, and appears to be credited on the map as the designer (who "made and laid it out").

[16] There is possible evidence of female patronage contributing to the map's production, in the single well-dressed, arisocratic female figure among the elect drawn on the top left handside of the map, and in the drawing of the modestly dressed and therefore piously presented handmaiden offering the Virgin Mary a crown.

[20] Strickland has attempted to interpret the map's images of medieval Jewry and associated bible stories to understand what it may have been trying to convey about Jews and Judaism.

She notes that this was a particular concern in England, where the Jews were expelled in 1290, and also of Hereford cathedral and its leadership, who had been in conflict with the local Jewish population.

[23] The devil is labelled "Mahu(n)", a name for imaginary idols believed to be worshipped by Muslims, building an association with figures elsewhere on the map negatively representing Saracens.

This arguably moves the image into a depiction of host desecration, but at a minimum places the Jews in a position of mocking Christians.

[25] The "blank scroll" of the Golden Calf scene also connects with the nearby depiction of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, directly above.

The phoenix symbolised Christ's resurrection, as it emerges intact from fire after three days; in the bestiaries, this was said to echo the prophecy of Jesus that he had the power to lay his life down and take it up again, which had angered the Jews.

After three loops representing forty years of travel each, the path encounters the disobedient wife of Lot, on the point of being turned into a pillar of salt for looking back onto the city of Sodom.

Here also stands a marsok, with different kinds of feet, which may be linked to the shape changing hyena, itself associated in bestiaries with Jews as an unclean, sex-changing animal.

Positioned between the Tower of Babel and Lot's wife, the marsok may also function to connect the Exodus story to the sin of pride.

The destination of the Exodus path is Jericho, positioned just above the crucified Christ, whose hand points back to the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf, linking the crucifixion to those deemed responsible in medieval theology.

[31] At the top left of the map, near the Day of Judgement, is a description of the cannibalism of fili caim maledicti, or "accursed sons of Cain".

Religious teachings recognised the necessity of marriage and reproductive sex, but emphasised virginity as the preferable state.

During World War II this was printed in Japanese textbooks since Paradise appears to be roughly in the location of Japan.

During the Second World War, for safety reasons, the mappa mundi and other valuable manuscripts from Hereford Cathedral Library were kept elsewhere and returned to the collection in 1946.

[43] In 1988, a financial crisis in the Diocese of Hereford caused the Dean and Chapter to propose selling the mappa mundi.

[44] After much controversy, large donations from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Paul Getty and members of the public kept the map in Hereford and allowed the construction of a new library designed by Sir William Whitfield to house the map and the chained libraries of the Cathedral and of All Saints' Church.