Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West

Abstract

Jerusalem was the object of intense study and devotion throughout the Middle Ages. This book illuminates ways in which the city was represented by Christians in Western Europe, from the 600s the 1500s. Focusing on maps in illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, it also considers views and architectural replicas, and treats depictions of the Temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre alongside those of Jerusalem as a whole. The chapters draw on new research and a range of disciplinary perspectives to show how such depictions responded to developments in the West, as well as to the shifting political circumstances of Jerusalem and its wider region. One central theme is the relationship between text, image and manuscript context, including discussion of images as scriptural exegesis and the place of schematic diagrams and plans in the presentation of knowledge. Another is the impact of trends in learning, such as the reception of Jewish scholarship, the move from monastic to university education, and the creation of yet wider audiences through mendicant preaching and the development of printing. The book also examines the role of changing liturgical and devotional practices, including imagined pilgrimage and the mapping of Jerusalem onto European cities and local landscapes. Finally, it seeks to elucidate how two- and three-dimensional representations of the city both resulted from and prompted processes of mental visualization. In this way, the book is conceived as a contribution to manuscript studies, the history of cartography, visual studies and the history of ideas.