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Constructions of Christian Identity in the Northern Periphery: the Sawley World Map in Twelfth-Century England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2021

MIHAI DRAGNEA
MIHAI DRAGNEA*
Affiliation:
University of South-Eastern Norway, PO Box 235, 3603 Kongsberg, Norway
*
E-mail: mihaidragnea2018@gmail.com
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Abstract

An exploration of the complex relationship between Christian constructions of identity and the idea of sacrality derived from the ancient Greco-Roman world, this article argues that Christian identity developed uniquely in a specific context, often intertwined with theology and mythology. The complex relationship between the two was crucial in the construction of Christian identity in the lands recently converted, and influenced the authors of world maps from the eleventh century onward. This study investigates how the pagan past and Christian present were incorporated in some world maps, such as the twelfth-century English Sawley map. Thus it offers readers a coherent analysis of early history-writing in northern Europe in the first centuries after conversion.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 726 - 750
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

MGH = Monumenta Germaniae Historica; Epp. = Epistolae; SS rer. Germ. = Scriptores rerum Germanicorum

References

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