Mappae mundi (maps of the world), beautiful objects in themselves, offer huge insights into how medieval scholars conceived the world and their place within it. They are a fusion of "real" geographical locations with fantasical, geographic, historical, legendary and theological material. Their production reached its height in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with such well-known examples as the Hereford map, the maps of Matthew Paris, and the Vercelli map. This volume provides a comprehensive Companion to the seven most significant English mappae mundi. It begins with a survey of the maps' materials, types, shapes, sources, contents, conventions, idiosyncrasies, commissioners and users, moving on to locate the maps' creation and use in the realms of medieval rhetoric, Victorine memory theory and clerical pedagogy. It also establishes the shared history of map and book making, and demonstrates how pre-and post-Conquest monastic libraries in Britain fostered and fed their complementary relationship. A chapter is then devoted to each individual map. An annotated bibliography of multilingual resources completes the volume. DAN TERKLA is Emeritus Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University; NICK MILLEA is Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Contributors: Nathalie Bouloux, Michelle Brown. Daniel Connolly, Helen Davies, Gregory Heyworth, Alfred Hiatt, Marcia Kupfer, Nick Millea, Asa Simon Mittman, Dan Terkla, Chet Van Duzer. Contributors: Nathalie Bouloux, Michelle Brown. Daniel Connolly, Helen Davies, Gregory Heyworth, Alfred Hiatt, Marcia Kupfer, Nick Millea, Asa Simon Mittman, Dan Terkla, Chet Van Duzer.

Front cover -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 The Icelandic Hemispherical World Maps -- Chapter 2 The Icelandic Zonal Map -- Chapter 3 The Two Maps from Viðey -- Chapter 4 Iceland in Europe -- Chapter 5 Forty Icelandic Priests and a Map of the World -- Conclusion -- Map Texts and Translations -- The Icelandic Hemispherical World Maps -- The Icelandic Zonal Map -- The Larger Viðey Map -- The Smaller Viðey Map -- Bibliography -- Index -- Studies in Old Norse Literature.

Fresh examinations of one of the most important church furnishings of the middle ages. The churches of medieval Europe contained richly carved and painted screens, placed between the altar and the congregation; they survive in particularly high numbers in England, despite being partly dismantled during the Reformation. While these screens divided "lay" from "priestly" jurisdiction, it has also been argued that they served to unify architectural space. This volume brings together the latest scholarship on the subject, exploring in detail numerous aspects of the construction and painting of screens, it aims in particular to unite perspectives from science and art history. Examples are drawn from a wide geographical range, from Scandinavia to Italy. Spike Bucklow is Director of Research at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge; Richard Marks is Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at the University of York and currently a member of the History of Art Department, University of Cambridge; Lucy Wrapson is Assistant to the Director at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge. Contributors: Paul Binski, Spike Bucklow, Donal Cooper, David Griffith, Hugh Harrison, JacquelineJung, Justin Kroesen, Julian Luxford, Richard Marks, Ebbe Nyborg, Eddie Sinclair, Jeffrey West, Lucy Wrapson.

This book attempts to determine the origins of the God of the Bible, based on the most ancient documents available to date. Originally titled "Abraham, Moses and Elohim", this book examines the possibility that mankind was not alone on Earth during our prehistory, when our oldest legends of ancient gods and demigods first originated. ¶ Many recently discovered texts were written within only a few generations after the great flood of Noah's time around 5,000 years ago. Some of our antediluvian myths are based on actual individuals and events that took place before our oldest civilizations invented writing. In fact, there may have been an entire civilization of extraterrestrials who came to Earth and enslaved the earliest humans, in order to exploit them for manual labor. Conflicts among the rulers of these Anunnaki "gods" led to devastating wars that are described in the oldest myths of ancient India, ancient Sumer, in Egypt, and even in your Bible. The most powerful of these rulers continued to wage war during the first centuries of mankind's written history. One such war began and ended with the complete annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah and two additional cities in a territory that was being controlled by the fallen angel we know as Satan, the Prince of the Power of the Air. The Apostle Paul made reference to this title in the first century A.D., but the Prince of the Power of the Air was once a highly honored position among one of the two most powerful "gods" of the ancient world. The other supreme Anunnaki ruler, the Lord of the Earth, was credited in the world's oldest literature with having created the first humans. However, the Anunnaki and early humans were not alone on our planet. There was an even more powerful entity working behind the scenes. The ancient Sumerians knew him as the Father of All Beginnings. Together, with the Creator of All, it was He who actually created the heavens and the earth and initially seeded our planet with life. ¶ Whether or not humanity continues to exist is simply a matter of faith. A single cosmic catastrophic event could destroy all life on Earth in an instant, and only an actual deity capable of controlling time and space could save us. The Anunnaki cannot and never could perform miracles. But there is a God who can.

“An explosive, fascinating book that reveals how the Bible cannot be used as a rulebook when it comes to sex. A terrific read by a top scholar.” —Bart Ehrman, author of Misquoting Jesus Boston University’s cutting-edge religion scholar Jennifer Wright Knust reveals the Bible’s contradictory messages about sex in this thoughtful, riveting, and timely reexploration of the letter of the gospels. In the tradition of Bart Erhman’s Jesus Interrupted and John Shelby Spong’s Sins of Scripture, Knust’s Unprotected Texts liberates us from the pervasive moralizing—the fickle dos and don’ts—so often dictated by religious demagogues. Knust’s powerful reading offers a return to the scripture, away from the mere slogans to which it is so often reduced.

The famous Hereford world map, the 'Mappa Mundi', dates from around 1300, and was painted on one skin of calf-parchment. In setting the Hereford world map in context, Harvey and his 24 collaborators introduce us to medieval ideas of the world and man's place in it.