My Medieval Map: https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/3d3e14d6ff5bf791e8df42414c25f59c/medieval-map-assignment-gillie-schmidt-quee/index.html

The Psalter Map illuminates a similar conceptualization as Felix Fabri’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late Fifteenth Century. The Psalter Map was published sometime after 1262, over a century before Fabri’s journey in 1483 (Wacha 2020). However, when read alongside one another, they present a dominantly Christian religious conception of the world that places Jerusalem in the center. By comparing Felix Fabri’s route on the Psalter Map to a modern one, it becomes evident that society has de-centralized Jerusalem and no longer presents objectivity through religious understanding. Instead, modern maps are focused on scale, geographic features, nation-borders and distinctions, and population density. While the shape of Fabri’s journey stays the same, the presentation of his route and the concepts around each location have shifted away from religious bias and towards a more objective representation of geography and distance. 

The most apparent difference between a modern map and the Psalter World Map is its orientation. Like many maps of the time, the Psalter World Map is oriented so that East faces upwards, unlike the modern representation of North at the top. Another significant visual difference is the shape of the map. The Psalter World map is circular, and represents the world as it was known with only three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. Prominent cities and geographic features shape the map. Places like Rome, Macedonia, and Cyprus are illuminated, and the Mediterranean Sea, the Alps, and the Sahara Desert are clearly marked physical features. The Psalter map distorts the rest of the world around Jerusalem so it appears superior and uses geographic boundaries to reinforce their physical impact on travelers’ journeys. The Psalter Map is surrounded by religious iconography and references which present the world through a starkly Christian lens. While modern maps still represent man-made and geographic elements, the presentation is much less subjective. Technology such as Google Maps use satellite photography to present an objective view of the world. The implementation of photography shifts away from religious iconography as a means of representation and instead mirrors what one sees. Maps still employ symbols to show significant landmarks and borders, however these icons are no longer shaped by religious storytelling and instead work to mimic reality. 

We learn early on in Fabri’s narrative that travel is esteemed and is not accessible to everyone. However, Fabri embarks on his second wandering because he “was by no means satisfied” with his previous “short and hurried” journey (Fabri 3). While he is hesitant to ask to return to the Holy Land, he does it anyway and vows to himself that this time he will record the journey – hence The Book of Wanderings. Fabri perceives Germany as a superior and dominant nation, a perception that is not shared with the Psalter World Map’s presentation of the world. The Alps are a significant landmark for the map, however Germany itself is not labeled and does not give the same importance as Fabri’s account of his nation. His world view is created by both a religious and nationalistic understanding to reinforce the accuracy and reality of his narrative. Fabri’s representation of German superiority builds on Christian hegemony and narrates a shift towards nationalism after the creation of the Psalter Map. 

The Psalter World Map and Felix Fabri’s Wanderings visualize distance and location through a dominant, Western, Christian perspective. In the second half of his narrative, Fabri emphasizes his desire to visit Mount Sinai and the convent of Saint Catherine, another important location for religious pilgrimage. However, he resists this desire because of the extreme distance. He wants to “go as far as Mount Sinai” and appeals to church leaders, however it is understood that Mount Sinai is just too far (Fabri 50). The Psalter Map represents this distance, from Jerusalem to Egypt looks just as long if not longer than the Alps to Jerusalem. The map places Egypt in a far corner close to the unfamiliar and threatening drawings of “monstrous races” (Wacha 2020). This distance and Mount Sinai’s closeness to the monstrous races ostracizes the location and presents it as completely foreign – thus informing Fabri’s conception that it is of a different land. The inherent racism of Christian society’s understanding of the world is written into Felix Fabri’s narrative and his understanding of location. He blames “Saracens” for the corruption of Saint Catherine’s convent, and goes further to describe them as having “heads like dogs, with long ears hanging down” (Fabri 54). His representation is mirrored by the Psalter map’s illustrations and together it becomes evident that these hegemonic ideas were not only prominent in religion but also influenced political and social understanding. 

The narrative and the map work together to project Southern lands as both dangerous and unhuman, which continues to fuel the discourse and Fabri’s understanding that Mount Sinai is an unattainable destination regardless of his desire. Modern maps help disprove the racist projection of the Middle Ages, and make it apparent that this conceptualization is skewed. In actuality, Mount Sinai is only 330 miles from Jerusalem, while Ulm (Fabri’s starting point) is 2,425 miles from Jerusalem. Additionally, one could travel from Jerusalem to Mount Sinai on land whereas it took Fabri many weeks of sailing on the Mediterranean to arrive in Jerusalem. It would have taken Fabri a fraction of the time to continue to Mount Sinai, especially after going on pilgrimage not once, but twice. Modern tools illuminate that the journey to Mount Sinai would have been attainable for Fabri, information that was not available to him because of Christian framework. It is helpful to compare the two visualizations to understand the rigidity of the world view Fabri was traveling with. Modern tools present accurate distances which shows the falseness of Fabri’s understanding and the impact of the Christian world view in shaping ideas of space, distance, and familiarity. 

 

Works Cited 

Fabri, Felix. “The Book of the Wanderings of Felix Fabri (Circa 1480-1483 A.D.)” trans. Aubrey 

Stewart. 2 vols. London: Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, 1896. 

Wacha, Heather. “Psalter World Map (British Library Add. MS 28681, f. 9r).” n Virtual Mappa, 

eds. Martin Foys, Heather Wacha et al. Schoenberg Institute of Manuscript Studies, 2020: https://sims2.digitalmappa.org/36.