ABSTRACT

Maps in the Middle Ages were embedded in texts and, as cartographical historians are beginning to show, there is much scope for interpreting such maps contextually. Arguably such maps present a detached, disembodied, almost clinical view of medieval landscapes and settlement, far removed from the ways in which the features they represent would have been experienced by people on the ground. The chapter focuses on maps and mapping, to explore how both modern and medieval representations of urban landscapes reflect maps of medieval thought. It considers plans and planning to look at how cultural symbolism was written into material urban landscapes through the ways they were being shaped on the ground. The argument made that this requires looking into own cartographical imaginaries rather than ignoring them, for these can provide insight on those ways in which medieval urban landscapes were shaped and inhabited, and the significance attached to their forms.