Returning Home from Jerusalem: Matthew Paris's First Map of Britain in Its Manuscript Context

ABSTRACT In about 1250, Matthew Paris produced a map sequence that begins with a seven-page London-to-Jerusalem itinerary and culminates in the earliest known map of Britain. The sequence defines thetransition from itinerary to map in syntactical terms, presenting it alongside a series of translations from vernacular languages into Latin; the reader demonstrates his mastery of this increasingly complex representation of space by maintaining an orientation toward Jerusalem and the east despite the itinerary's rapidly multiplying obstacles and distractions. Once this orientation has been established, England itself becomes a network of potential journeys, each imagined in terms of pilgrimage, that collectively produce a sacred—and thus representable—geography.