108 

 At the request of tlie President, the following paper was then read :- 



ON THE PROPOSAL TO COPY AND PUBLISH THE 

 HEREFORD MAP OP THE WORLD. 



By THOMAS BLASHILL, Esq. , Vice-presidekt. 



At our last annual meeting Sir William Guise called attention to the 

 ancient Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral, and offered a handsome subscrip- 

 tion towards its reproduction by means of photogiaphy or engraving. Our 

 President, Mr. Chandos Wren Hoskyns, supported him, and, as other members 

 volunteered tlieir assistance, it was understood that the subject should be 

 further considered by the Club. 



This map has been the subject of much curiosity and of some study during 

 many years, nevertheless, no complete critical examination of it seems to have 

 been undertaken. Upon the formation of the museum of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, some years since, a copy was made, and this copy was itself copied in 

 1841 for the Bihliothique du Ro>, in Paris. From this last copy were executed 

 lithographs which caused considerable interest amongst French geographers. 

 The late Dean Merewether had written a paper upon it for the Hereford 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, and in 1843 Mr. Thomas Wright, M.A., read 

 a paper before the British Archcelogical Association, at the Gloucester Congress. 

 In 1861, Mons. D'Avezac, of Paris, who is a distinguished French geographer 

 and member of the Institute, read a paper upon it before the SocUU de 

 GioprapMe, and visited Hereford last summer for the purpose of examining 

 the original. Having a previous acquaintance with him I had an opportunity 

 of hearing his opinion of it upon his return from Hereford, when he presented 

 me with his paper which was translated and published in the Gentlemen's 

 Mariavne for May, 1863, by the Eev. G. Fyler Townsend, late Vicar of 

 Leominster. 



I may state that the result of Mons. D'Avezac's very ingenious inquiry 

 is to fix the date of the map, in his opinion, at about the beginning of 1314 ; 

 an opinion which probably will not be received without dispute, but it is 

 certainly of importance. The time seems to be now favourable for promoting 

 a thorough examination of the map and for the collection of all the evidence 

 that boars upon its history. It is extremely difficult to examine the map in its 

 present position — the Cathedral — which indeed is hardly a fitting place for such 

 an undertaking. I have reason to believe that the London copy (and, by 

 consequence, the French one) is not a perfect fac simiU of the original. The 

 first requisite therefore for a complete study of the subject is the production of 

 a true copy that can be placed in the hands of persons well versed in such 

 different branches of knowledge as may be expected to throw light upon the 



