IN NORTHERN MISTS 



insight into how little weight was attached at that time to the 

 relation between maps and reality; they are for the most part 

 merely graphic schemes. Probably Higden's map was partly 

 copied from an older one, and the desirability of bringing it into 

 better agreement with his text did not occur to him. 



The so-called " Anglo-Saxon mappamundi " or " Cotto- 

 niana" (reproduced Vol. I, pp. i8o, 183), which is in the 

 British Museum, occupies a position of its own among early 

 mediaeval maps. Its age is uncertain; it may at the earliest 

 date from the close of the tenth century, but possibly it is as 

 late as the twelfth [cf. K. Miller, iii., 1895, p. 31]- It exhibits 

 no agreement with the text of Priscian (Latin translation of 

 Dionysius Periegetes, see Vol. I, p. 114), to which it is appended. 

 Many of the names might rather be derived from Orosius, there 

 is also great resemblance to Mela (cf. Vol. I, pp. 85 f.), 

 and in some ways to the mediaeval maps already mentioned, 

 although the representation of the North is different. Probably 

 an older, perhaps Roman (?) map formed the basis of it. 

 Name-forms like Island, Norweci ^ (Norwegia), Sleswic, Sclavi, 

 may remind us of Adam of Bremen, but they may also be 

 older. This map is doubtless less formal than the pronounced 

 wheel-map type, but it does not bear a much greater resemblance 

 to reality, although the form of Britain, for instance, may show 

 an effort in that direction. The peninsula which has been 

 given the name of Norweci (Norway) has most resemblance to 

 Jutland, and the name seems to have been misplaced. No doubt 

 it ought rather to have been attached to the long island lying 

 to the north, which has been given the names Scridefinnas and 

 Island. The representation has great resemblance to Edrisi's 

 map (cf. p. 203), where Denmark forms a similar peninsula, 

 and Norway a similar long island, with two smaller islands to 

 the east of Denmark, which is also alike. The " Orcades 

 Insule " are given a wide extension on the Cottoniana map, 

 and " Tyle " (Thule) lies to the north-west of Britain, as it should 



1 " Nero," which appears before this word on the map (see Vol. I, p. 183), 

 is crossed out, and was evidently an error. 

 192 



