@ Phil: Knowing the 13th Century

Ok, to 13th Century I go. After speaking to Alan on Friday, he said I needed to get together a 'recipe' for my animation. Combining this with research I hope I've got it now, or am getting closer.

To gather thing together:

I'm doing Judgment Day, which will include the Huntsman who can be found in the bottom right hand corner.

There are different types of medieval art, mainly wood cut, stained glass windows, Tapestry and metal work. However after returning to viewing the map, I can see Tapestry would be the best type of 13th century art which would fit into the theme of the Mappa Mundi

Phil, below is a sort of collage of things which represent the 13th Century. I’ve even discovered that, although people associate the word ‘Gothic’ with the Victorian era, it was actually created in the 13th century.

As the 13th Century started religious buildings etc took on a ‘Gothic theme’

The word Gothic came from France and was adapted in England.

Hammer beamed roofs was a new style for building.

Ribbed Vaulted ceilings

As well as coarse lime stone, red stone and dark green Purbeck

Flying buttress was also new and a popular feature on any respectable building

There was very little glass, only the rich had it and even then it was used only for the bedrooms.

Yellow was seen as the colour represented one betraying God. It also was associated with a dead corpse, mainly the colour of the skin.

Red- sacrificial represents Christ’s sacrifice.

Blue-Represents the spiritual world.

The images were a way of telling stories for very few people could read and write.

Images aren’t in correct scale. Buildings are out of perspective

Ivy- represents eternal life because of how it grows on dead pieces of wood etc. Also represents resurrection.

I also have some key points which will help me understand what was happening in the world at such a time.

Edward I on the throne at the time

Lots of battles in France

Barons made him give up a number of rights, enforcing the Magna Carta

Lords has castle

Most by this time had glass in windows- though not as lot, still pretty expensive

Living mostly carried out in the Great Hall

Generally bedrooms divided by hanging curtains

Church – by this time the Archbishop had stopped King from allocating Bishoprics to favourites (there was a lot of money in being a Bishop)

Priest were generally commoners or second / third sons of Lords etc

Serfs had to work the land and could not become priests

Monasteries were attached to monasteries where they led a simple life in church like buildings – or in theory

In reality they were thought to be lazy and the idle rich

They were one of the few sets of people who could read and write and were producers and readers of books

Friars were roving monks who mixed with the common people and begged to survive.

These were far more popular as priests and monks were seen as the idle rich

About 3 % of the population were Nobles

Clergy about 7%

Remaining 90% commoners

Not all poor as there were merchants and the like that were almost as rich as Lords

25% were serfs – one step up from slaves

Remainder were free – to one extent or another

During the 13 Century weather had been good and the harvest was good

Entertainment was storytelling and gossip

Lived in villages and hamlets of between 100 – 1000 people and seldom left

Few compasses at this time and dry compass only invented 1300 – at the time of Mapa Mundi

At this time the world was thought by most to be flat – people like Drake who navigated the world wouldn’t be there for hundreds of years

Only educated people ‘knew’ the world was round

Believed no one existed on the other side of the world

This was because God did not come to the southern hemisphere.

Navigated using stars – hugging to coastlines and occasionally floating compasses

Had no real idea as to where countries were

Because of the religious significance in the Mapa Mundi Jerusalem in the centre of the world

This was created in a monastery, where books and learning played an important part in everyday life

This would have been a scholarly work – the map being created through reading and even maybe 1st hand accounts of travellers

The people who created this map are unlikely to have travelled far from their town / village to produce this map

They would have accounts from Crusade and because we were conquered by Normans – would have known all about France and Europe

Suspect lot based on great conquerors like Romans and Alexander the Great

Factual mixed with myth – biblical and Greek / Roman myths

Also some seven wonders of world – Pillars of Hercules, Lighthouse at Alexandria
Intellectual exercise and scholarly work – no real bearing on reality or of use to the traveller