ABSTRACT
Cartographers and cosmographers conveyed a discrete geographical nature for Ham’s territory in the same frame. The cartographic works of the early and central Middle Ages, best represented by the schematic tripartite mappaemundi based on Isidore of Seville, give the impression that their authors tended to look upon Nature as a mere reflection of the transcendent world. Along with the semantic screen of convention and symbolism, most erudite works in the Middle Ages contain a different degree of insight with a more transparent and literal approach to phenomena. The most outstanding feature in the portrayal of Africa as displayed by these two works is, however, the noticeable amount of geographical and pseudo-geographical details that the maps show south of the Mediterranean fringe. A most outstanding example illustrating the consequences of stratified space in the late Middle Ages is provided by the Psalter map.
