Beatus map
Encyclopedia
Beatus of Liébana
Saint Beatus of Liébana was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias, in modern northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains of the region of Liébana, in what is now Cantabria and his feast day is February 19.-Biography:He created an important...
, based on the accounts given by Saint Isidore of Seville, Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
and the Holy Bible. Although the original manuscript is lost, there still remain several copies, which retain a high fidelity with respect the original.
The Map is shown in the prologue of the second book of Beatus' work Commentary on the Apocalypse
Commentary on the Apocalypse
Commentary on the Apocalypse was originally an eighth century work by the Spanish monk and theologian Beatus of Liébana. Today, it refers to any of the extant manuscript copies of this work, especially any of the 26 illuminated copies that have survived. It is often referred to simply as the Beatus...
. Its main goal is not to depict a cartographically exact depiction of the world and its continents, but to illustrate the primitive Diaspora of the Apostles.
The European world view in the High Middle Ages
According to the descriptions of the Book of Genesis (which was one of the main sources of Beatus), the Earth was thought to be plane and to sustain the vault of heaven, where the Sun, the Moon, and many other minor luminariesLuminary
The luminaries were what traditional astrologers called the two astrological "planets" which were the brightest and most important objects in the heavens, that is, the Sun and the Moon.- Origins :...
like planets and stars, moved. There were two sorts of water masses: The waters above the firmament, which were contained by the vault of heaven and occasionally fell to Earth in form of rain, when the floodgates opened, and the waters below, which nurtured the rivers, the streams and the great salt water masses.
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Shem
Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
, Ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
and Japheth
Japheth
Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
. The continental masses are separated by water streams and inner seas like the Mediterranean (Europe-Africa), the Nile River (Africa-Asia) and the Bosporus
Bosporus
The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...
and the Aegeus Sea (Europe-Asia). In the center of the world lays Jerusalem, sacred city to Christianity and Judaism alike, where Abraham was about to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, and where the happenings of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus did take place. The conception of Jerusalem as an ombilicum mundi was quite usual in the medieval Christian spirituality: In the Divine Comedy, Dante starts his travel to hell from the soils of this city.
Asia
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
, a paradisical territory where it is never cold or hot, and where trees and wood of all kinds grow. In its center stands the Tree of Life, and next to it there is a fountain from which the four rivers of Paradise: Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
, Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
, Pison and Gihon
Gihon
Gihon is the name of the second river mentioned in the second chapter of the biblical Book of Genesis. The Gihon is mentioned as one of four rivers issuing out of the Garden of Eden that branched from a single river within the garden. The name may be interpreted as "Bursting Forth, Gushing"...
flow. The entrance to Paradise is protected by a Cherub who brandishes a sword of fire.
On the southern coast of the Asian continent is found India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, an enormous territory traversed by three rivers, the Indus, Ganges and Hipane. It is abundant in men of dark color, elephants, rhinoceroses, spices and precious stones such as rubies, emeralds or diamonds. Its fields are blessed by the west wind, Favonio, and for that reason they yield two harvests a year. In that location are found the Mountains of Gold, access to which is forbidden to humans by griffins and dragons. Off the Indian coast are the islands of Taprobane (Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon), abundant with gems and elephants, Chrysa and Argyre, rich in gold and silver respectively, and finally Tyle, whose trees never lose their leaves (it has been speculated that this is some island of Indonesia).
To the west of India one finds Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
, a region that extends between the rivers Indus and Tigris. It is divided into five different provinces: Aracusia; Parthia proper, called thus by the Parthians, brave soldiers from Scythia who founded an empire that dealt with Rome on an equal basis; Assyria, called thus by Asshur, the son of Shem, famous for its purple dyes and all types of perfumes and ointments, in it situated Níniveh, the capital of the old empire of the Assyrians, and where Jonas the prophet went to preach futilely; Medes (northwest Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
), which is divided in two parts, Greater Medes (Hamadan
Hamadan
-Culture:Hamadan is home to many poets and cultural celebrities. The city is also said to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.Handicrafts: Hamadan has always been well known for handicrafts like leather, ceramic, and beautiful carpets....
, Kermanshahan, Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
and Espahan) and Smaller Medes (Azarbaijan); and finally Persia, birthplace of King Cyrus, the anointed one of God, and the region where magical science arose for the first time, introduced by Nebroth the giant, after the confusion of languages had emerged in Babel
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
is the region located between the rivers Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
and Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
. There we find the regions of Babylon and Chaldea. Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
was the ancient conqueror of the kingdom of Judah and the place where the Jewish people were exiled. In that city the revelations of the prophet Ezekiel took place, which had so much influence on the creation of the Prophetic Chronicle. From Chaldea
Chaldea
Chaldea or Chaldaea , from Greek , Chaldaia; Akkadian ; Hebrew כשדים, Kaśdim; Aramaic: ܟܐܠܕܘ, Kaldo) was a marshy land located in modern-day southern Iraq which came to briefly rule Babylon...
(South of Mesopotamia), the Asturian Chronicles supposed, came the hordes that invaded Spain and were defeated by Pelayo in Covadonga. Among the most important cities of this region can be mentioned Ur, the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, as well as Erech (or Uruk), which was founded by Enoch.
To the south of the Euphrates river and sinus Persicum (Persian Gulf), Arabia was located, a desert region whose southern part (present-day Yemen) received the name of Arabia Felix, Happy Arabia. It was a rich, fertile land where precious stones, myrrh and incense abounded. In it lived the fabulous bird phoenix, which after dying surrounded by fire was reborn of its ashes.
On the northeast border of Arabia, already in territories of the old Roman Empire, extended the province of Syria, whose limits were the Caucasus and Taurus Mountains to the north, the Euphrates to the east, the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt to the west, and Arabia to the south. Syria had three different provinces: Comagena, Phoenicia, and Palestine. The territory of Phoenicia extended from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Lebanon and the sea of Tiberiades. In Phoenicia were found the famous cities of Sidon and Tyre. In the latter they preached so much that the prophet Elias was Jesus Christ. Further south was located Palestine, which was subdivided into four different provinces: Galilee, where they nailed Jesus of Nazareth, the sea of Tiberiades, where a good part of the apostles worked as fishermen, and Monte Tabor, the place where the Transfiguration occurred.
• Partia ----> Aracusia, Partia (proper), Assyria, Mede, Persia
• Mesopotamia ----> Taurus and Caucasus mountains, Tigris and Euphrates, Babylon, Chaldea, Arabia Felix
• Syria ----> Comagena, Phoenicia and Palestine
• Nabathea
• Egypt and Ethiopia
• Eastern Regions ----> Seres, Bactriana, Scythia, Gothia (Gog and Magog), Albania, Armenia, Iberia
• Capadocia
• Asia Minor -----> Bithynia, Frigia, Galatia, Lydia, Caria, Panfilia, Isauria, Lycia, Cilicia