Largest surviving medieval world map

The largest surviving medieval world map is the Hereford Mappa Mundi, which measures 1.58 x 1.33 m (5 ft 2 in x 4 ft 4 in). The map was created in England in around 1300, and shows the world as it was known to scholars in medieval Europe. The map has been on display in Hereford Cathedral since the Middle Ages.

Maps of this type appear extremely crude to modern eyes, but it is important to understand that they were not intended to be used for navigation, and therefore do not attempt to show the relative sizes and shapes of different landmasses. These maps were instead diagrammatic representations of the known world and its peoples, and often included references to myths, legends and biblical stories. They are better thought of as a religious and moral teaching aid than a map in the sense we would understand today.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is attributed to a "Richard of Haldingham and Lafford", but it is not clear what role this person took in its creation. Many believe that a map of this size and complexity is unlikely to have been the work of just one person. The map is drawn on to a single sheet of vellum made from a bleached and stretched calfskin. It includes 500 illustrations of people, locations and creatures as well as events from history and classical mythology.

There was a larger Mappa Mundi, known as the Ebstorf Map, which was made in around 1234 for a convent in Ebstorf, Germany. This map was constructed from thirty individual sheets of vellum, which were joined to form a map that measured 3.58 x 3.56 m (11 ft 9 in x 11 ft 8 in). The map was acquired by a museum in Hanover, Germany, in the 19th century. In 1943, the museum and its collection was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid.