]54 



fact, together with the peculiar form of the drawing, has furnished ground for a 

 conjecture that it was intended for an altar-piece of one of the chapels of the 

 Cathedral. 



A copy of the Map, by no means an exact one, was made for the 

 Greographical Society in 1830 : from this a second copy was drawn for M. Jomard 

 in 1844, which was engraved in Peris. It is from these copies that the map has 

 been studied by Continental geographers, and that portions of it have been copied 

 and discussed in detail by several French scholars. An imperfect copy, from 

 the original, of the part containing the British Isles (which had been previously 

 engraved for Cough's work) was published in 1846 by Mr. "W. Saxe Bannister. 



The work, as a whole, has been the subject of elaborate essays by the 

 Vicomte de Santarem (HUtoire de la, Cartographie au Moyen Age) and by M. 

 d'Avezac, a former president of the Geographical Society of Paris (Note sur la 

 Mappemonde Historiie\de la CatMdrale de Hiriford, 1861). It has also been 

 briefly noticed by M. Lelewel (Geographic du Moyen Age, voL ii. p. 6). But it is 

 to be regretted that the labours of these scholars have been expended upon im- 

 perfect copies, which have misled them in some very important particulars. 



The Map is elaborately drawn in colours on vellum. Its author must have 

 been a distinguished caligrapher. Some few words, that can easily be detected, 

 have been inserted by a later and less instructed scribe, who has transposed the 

 names of the continents of Europe and Africa, which had not been inserted by 

 the author. The ravages of time are but too perceptible in the work, and soma 

 parts can only be deciphered with difficulty. It is obviously desirable that a very 

 correct copy of it should be made while it is still possible to reproduce the 

 colours of the original, as well as the drawing and the writing. A document so 

 important in its bearing, not only on the history of scientific knowledge but on 

 the legends of the middle ages, should not be suffered to perish, and ought to be 

 placed within easy reach of students at home and abroad. 



It is therefore proposed to publish a facsimile, executed with the utmost 

 care in coloured lithography, to be accompanied by a photograph of 15 inches in 

 diameter, by which the critical accuracy of the copy may be perfectly tested with 

 the aid of a glass. Letterpress will be added, which wUl contain all that is 

 known of the author, copies of the whole of the legends in the Map with 

 explanations, and a critical examination of the Map and of its place in the 

 history of cartography. 



It is expected that this work will be published about the latter part of the 

 year (1870). 



The Rev. F. T. Havergal, the College, Hereford, will gladly give any 

 further information about it, and receive subscribers' names. 



-OK3e 



