Winchester College possesses the manuscript below. Watch this short video to learn about the book, and the map within. Beneath the video I give a complete description of it, a short history of the text, and an exploration of this copy's significance.
The above manuscript, commonly known as Higden's Polychronicon, is from the late 14th century, and forms part of the Fellows' Library at Winchester College. It was owned by William of Wykeham and gifted to the college before his death in 1404. The mappa mundi, or world map, contained within, is hugely rare.
The text is divided into seven books, referencing the seven days in Genesis, and decorated with gilded initials, including large illuminated red and blue initials at the beginning of each book. Inside, there is a diagram of Noah’s Ark in red and black. In total, there are 220 parchment folios bound in a mid-20th-century alum-tawed pigskin, i.e. white leather, over pasteboard. There is also a late-20th-century deerskin chemise. The book is 33.5 centimetres tall and 23.5 centimetres wide.
The Polychronicon, or in full Ranulphi Castrensis, cognomine Higden, Polychronicon (sive Historia Polycratica) ab initio mundi usque ad mortem regis Edwardi III in septem libros dispositum, was written by Ranulf Higden, a monk from Chester. Six of the seven books make up a comprehensive history of the times. It contains secular historical events, and related to Bible events. Higden's text was continued by other writers: Winchester's copy includes the accession of Richard II to the English throne in 1377, shortly before the college's foundation.
The reason why the Winchester copy of Higden's Polychronicon is so significant is the Mappa Mundi within.
Enclosed within a highly symbolic sea-green mandorla, there is a map of the known world. It is orientated east (youtu.be/SMsYaePDJ9M?t=28), and follows a traditional O-T design (suitably named because it is a T shape inside an O, and because Earth is Latin is orbis terrarum). The three parts of the map can be seen to represent the biblical Noah's three children.
At the very top, we can see Paradise, and in the centre, Jerusalem, encircled in red. England, in the bottom-left quadrant, has been worn away, undoubtedly by the fingers of countless generations of Wykehamists. The Straits of Gibraltar mark the bottom of the map, with the undiscovered Americas beyond.
Exhibition - An Age of Exploration 1400-1600: godtres.wixsite.com/cornucopia/post/exhibition-an-age-of-exploration-1400-1600
Winchester College – Collections: winchestercollections.co.uk/collection/polychronicon-late-14th
Inside the Fellows' Library – Exploring the Rare Books of Winchester College: youtube.com/watch?v=u1R4zI4jrxE&t=266s
'50 Treasures of Winchester College': treasury.winchestercollege.org/new-design/pages/forms/50-treasures-of-winchester-college-order-form-
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