Penguin NEKO MedievalNote on the cover maps “The primary requirement of the traveller @ lst of the places he wil be passing theough or toys in the medieval period when travel was mostly by seu the need was met by lists of Coastal owns. These ists were realy conserted Into diagrams of the type on the back cover. ‘which shows, along the Bottom, the sequence fof seen coastal towns from Haifa in Palestine to Damietta at the easton comer of the Egyptian delta, From Jaffa inthe centre a road Fea inland to Jerusalem, which i allowed an ‘expned scale and considerable tail: from Jerusalem another road is shown goin off 10 Damascus at roughly the coreet angle and in roughly the right relationship wo the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, However, the presentation fa rghtangle pice of coast line 28 straight rings the Nile into line with the Spine of the ook, and Cairo up agaist Jerusalem (top righthand eoener) so that the ‘map cannot be said to Be & rl acess, Matthew Paris who drew this map was 2 monks the map on the front gover is hy a profesional, Abraham Cresqus, oficial map find compass maker to Peter IIT of Acago. Increasingly confident use ofthe compass inthe 1imcentury Ted toa demand for usable charts and supplied the information necessary Tor ‘heir consruction; by the end ofthe entry an astonishingly accurate outline of the Miter Fanean was available, superimposed on an oblique grid of compass-bearings. This eid Was testended asa framework forthe elaborate Aas lof the World which Creques produced in 1378 35 a gift Tor the King of France. The section shows onthe front eave, he Kingdom of Delhi Inthe northwestern quarter of India, was only non to Cresques by hearsay, and the map's pvedieval tosehes kings and other ereatures inthe litte known hinterland ave at st sight {tsmost striking feature. But the eb oF compass bearings, he constant scale, the eorret corintation of the sting of coastal towns and tev the fac hat the towns are represented By Mandar symbols rather than” individual pictures, spell the dieronce between a map and fn illsration, between meieval and modern atitudes. In 1427 Ceesgues’ son went to Portugal whore a projet foe ecaching Inia by sircurmagating Africa was being. actively “iscussed the mariner af the Age of Discovers swore to ase charts drawn up on the Catalan Also by Colin MeEvedy Penguin Boks So nth Sarak ME) 1 From the Beginning 19 Alexander the Great 2. The Clasial World 3 The Dark Ages Rupert Hart Dass and CrowcleColer U8)The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History and drawn by John Woodcock Penguin Books Contents Introd