The Ebstorf Map is an example of a mappa mundi (a Medieval European map of the world) similar to the Hereford Map, made by Gervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man as Gervase of Tilbury,[1] some time in the thirteenth century.
The map was found in a convent in Ebstorf, in northern Germany, in 1843.[2] It is a very large map: painted on 30 goatskins sewn together, it measured around 3.6m x 3.6m. The head of Christ is depicted at the top of the map, with his hands on either side and his feet at the bottom.[3] The Map is a greatly elaborated version of the common medieval tripartite or T and O map, it is centered on Jerusalem with east on top of the map. It represents Rome in the shape of a lion, and has an evident interest in the distribution of bishropics.[4]
There is text around the map, which includes descriptions of animals, the creation of the world, definitions of terms, and a sketch of the more common T and O map with an explanation of how the world is divided into three parts. The map incorporates pagan as well as Biblical history.[5]
The arguments for Gervase of Tilbury being the mapmaker are based on the name Gervase, which was an uncommon name in Northern Germany at the time and on some similarities between the world view of the mapmaker and Gervase of Tilbury.[6]
The editors of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition of Gervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperialia conclude that although them being the same man is an "attractive possibility", to accept it requires "too many improbable assumptions".[7]
The original was destroyed in 1943, during the bombing of Hanover in World War II. There is a set of black and white photographs showing the original map, taken in 1891, and there are several colour copies of it made before it was destroyed.[8]
