This paper addresses the changes and continuities within the wide range of cartographic practices that existed in the Middle Ages. Following introductory thoughts on methodological issues, the text focuses on three different types of maps, all of which represent the world in its entirety: schematic maps, world maps and nautical charts. Within different texts, as independent artifacts or as atlases, these maps were employed for diverse purposes, such as the representation of fundamental principles, of encyclopaedic ...

In the texts and illustrations of medieval Mappae mundi, women are represented in three different roles: as biblical or Christian characters (such as Eve in the Garden of Eden, Lot's wife and female saints), as legendary or mythical figures (e.g. the Queen of Sheba, mermaids) and as 'other' creatures with a deviant behaviour from the European norm (e.g. Amazons). The principal goal of this study is to analyse the different strategies that were developed by male European observers to project a filtered image of woman ...