Beatus map

The Beatus Map or Beatine Map is one of the most significant cartographic works of the European High Middle Ages: It was originally drawn by the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana, based on the accounts given by Saint Isidore of Seville, Ptolemy and the Holy Bible. Although the original manuscript is lost, there remain several copies extant, 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. 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 luminaries 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.