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mappadan.bsky.social
Home of my thoughts about archaic maps and mappae mundi, reconstructions and snaps people have taken of them, and my own redrawings. Third party stuff is believed to be in public domain. Copyright applies to own work.
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Testing to see what happens when I link a URL showing a hunting scene at Chartres cathedral from this stained glass archive. therosewindow.com/pilot/Chartr...

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

The very first Lichenomphalia umbellifera lichens I found. I think you can see why I lost my mind over them and am still obsessed with them. Distance shot below ⬇️ #fungifriends #fungi #mycology #naturephotography

submitted 15 hours ago • 117 comments

Porta nigra is a Roman city gate in Trier, ancient Augusta Treverorum. The town was founded in 16 BC. The gate was built out of grey sandstone after AD 170, but it was never finalised. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. #RomanSiteSaturday

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This extraordinary cameo glass amphora is from the Tomb of the Blue Vase in Pompeii. It depicts Cupids harvesting grapes while another decadently reclines on a couch and listens to a lyre playing. It is incredibly beautiful. 🕰️C1st AD. 🏛️📷 National Archaeological Museum, Naples 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Map of the world BL Add MS 8785; Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De Proprietatibus rerum; c.1300-1309; Italy, N. (Mantua); f.315r

submitted 13 hours ago • 0 comments

Just a hint of mist below. The scene from St Michael's tower on Glastonbury Tor earlier this morning. I even had company who watched me as I watched the scene below.

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

Moses receives the Law BnF MS Latin 1; Biblia (Vivien's Bible, known as the First Bible of Charles the Bald); 9th century (845 CE- 851 CE); Abbey of Saint-Martin in Tours; f.27v @gallicabnf.bsky.social

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Bryce Canyon National Park 🇺🇲

submitted 1 day ago • 369 comments

Reposting for #MosaicMonday. 🏺#AncientBlueSky

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Bacchus as the wine god, is covered with grapes, a fruit which grew in the fertile soil on the slopes of Vesuvius, trellises for which are shown in the wallpainting. from the House of the Centenary (IX, 8, 3-6). #Pompeii. Photo is my own; taken in 2019. #FrescoFriday

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Instructions how to draw medieval images using geometry, by Villard. gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

A medieval labyrinth whose unicursal design was repeated often. This is Villard de Honnecourt's version, which is the mirror image of the normal version.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

A tiger and a cub thief in the same manuscript.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

Willing to be corrected, but having searched through various documents, I believe the text of the Hereford Mappa is English Protogothic Bookscript, but it may be Gothic Textualis, into which it appears to evolve. Here's an example of the former in British Library, Additional MS 11283.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Hereford Mappa Blemmye...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

On of the things I like about drawing maps for people's books and projects is that I learn all sorts of things. Like, for example...about flying rivers.

submitted 2 days ago • 16 comments

Ewloe Castle in Wepre Wood, Flintshire. Built by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1257 during his reconquest of Perfeddwlad from the English. It is the best preserved example of a Welsh apsidal keep. It was abandoned after the Edwardian campaign into Wales when Flint Castle was built.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

It makes me sad that thousands of people visit the Hereford Mappa every year and have so little opportunity to figure what they are seeing. So my little images of bits and pieces and the text that goes with them are intended to offer a bit of help with that problem for some of the details at least.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

This is happening, right now. The great "arribada" (arrival) of mother Olive Ridley sea turtles on the Odisha coast, where they dig sand-nests & lay their eggs, driven by ancient instinct. Heart-lifting, magnificent, moving: part of a geography of hope. 🎞️ by Bivash Pandav via my friend Yuvan Aves.

submitted 3 days ago • 51 comments

The river of history meanders through the landscape of geography.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments