Michael Baizerman Author

My next chapter is devoted to the location of Jerusalem on European medieval mind maps. This is the second part (out of four) of Unit 2, titled The Saga of All My Sons, from my book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". The site of Jerusalem on the sixth century Madaba Map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madaba_Map The T-O maps, whose function we cleared up in the previous discussion, centered Jerusalem amid the circle of lands. Image 1: Jerusalem, the Holy City from the sixth century Madaba map mosaic (1) They did it, following in the footsteps of the Hebrew Bible, which draws a convincing picture of the Holy City located at the heart of the world. Ezekiel, the prophet and the enthusiastic creator of this vision, copies the Lord’s very words, announcing: “This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her”. (2) The idea of the centrality of Jerusalem was deeply implanted into the Jewish thought. The Book of...

My next chapter, titled "The Trefoil of the World", elaborates on the conventional geographical construct of the three continents forming the habitable world. This image, linked to the scholastic ideas of ancient Greeks and to the Christian philosophy, had further developments throughout the Middle Ages, culminating in detailed "world maps". Image:  Noah’s sons observing their estates from Jean Mansel's illustration to "La Fleur des Histoires" https://www.pinterest.com/dekockmarijke/noah/?lp=true  "Mappamundi, that is to say, image of the world and of the regions which are on the earth and of the various kinds of peoples which inhabit it."-The Catalan Atlas (2) The cosmographers who contemplated the mysteries of the Earth would employ two distinct approaches. On the one hand, they mulled over dry land as an orphan island, whose patchy outlines almost merged with the turbulent waves of the boundless Ocean.  On the other hand, they...