Edward I, Exodus, and England on the Hereford World Map

Abstract

The three figures, identified as Nicholdoxus, Theodocus, and Policitus, are mentioned again in connection with an earlier Roman mapping of the world in a larger inscription situated along the top left diagonal edge of the map, outside the space of the ecumene. For discussion, see Westrem, 3 (nos. 1-4) and 11 (no. 14); and Scully, "Augustus, Rome," 116-17. 6 Paulus Orosius, Pauli Orosii Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII, ed. Karl Zangemeister (Leipzig, 1889); Paulus Orosius, The Seven Books of History against the Pagans, trans. A. T. Fear (Liverpool, 2010). 7 The inscription appears just above the figure on horseback depicted in the map's lower right corner: Descripcio orosii de ornesta mundi sicut interius ostenditur ("Orosius's account, De Ornesta mundi, as is shown within"): Westrem, 7 (no. 10). Westrem, 6 (no. 10) also notes the alternative translation suggested by G. R. Crone (World Map, 2): "Orosius' description of the ornesta of the world, as is displayed within," with ornesta interpreted as a reference to mappae mundi. 8 On the map's sources, see Westrem, xxvii-xxxvii; and Gautier Dalché, "Décrire le monde." On its relationships to the Alexander, bestiary, and Monstrous Races traditions, see Kline, Maps of Medieval Thought, 168-90 (Alexander), 98-139 (bestiary), 146-64 (Monstrous Races); and Naomi Kline, "Alexander Interpreted on the Hereford Mappamundi," in Hereford World Map, ed. Harvey, 167-83. 9 "Tuz ki cest estorie ont / Ou oyront ou lirront ou veront, / Prient a Jhesu en deyte / De Richard de Haldingham o de Lafford eyt pite, / Ki lat fet e compasse, / Ki joie en cel li seit done" (Let all who have this history-or who shall hear, or read, or see it-pray to Jesus in his divinity to have pity on Richard of Holdingham, or of Sleaford, who made it and laid it out, that joy in heaven may be granted to him):