The Geography of Devotion in the British Library Map Psalter

Abstract

The article investigates how two thirteenth-century T-O maps in the British Library Map Psalter interact with their textual setting. The maps occupy the two sides of a single folio. On the recto is a pictorial world map with 91 place names; on the verso, a list map indicates 75 provinces and 77 cities within Asia, Africa, and Europe. The maps occupy a unique place within the history of medieval cartography because they are the only mappaemundi extant within a Book of Psalms. The specific relationship between the maps and the texts of the psalms is, however, less studied. I propose that the maps allude to the content of the psalms and complement images in the historiated initials, cultivating exegesis, prayer, and contemplation.

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