¹ Complete with its oak framework and triangular hanger, the whole would reach a height of 8 feet; Bevan, W. L. and Phillott, H. W., Medieval Geography: An Essay in Illustration of the Hereford Mappa Mundi (London and Hereford, 1873),13Google Scholar. Photographs reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the Hereford Mappa Mundi.

² The most complete discussion of the map, albeit now a little out of date, is that of Bevan and Phillott, Medieval Geography. An excellent introductory description, bibliography and discussion of some of the problems associated with the map is provided in Crone, G. R., The World Map by Richard of Haldingham in Hereford with Memoir by G. R. Crone (London, 1954)Google Scholar. This memoir accompanies a large-scale collotype reproduction of the whole, on a scale of approximately 9/10 of the original. The reproduction occupies nine slightly overlapping separate sheets, and is accompanied by a tenth drawn sheet, illustrating the possible cartographical sources of the map. It is a magnificent working tool. The discussion in the memoir is summarised and extended in Crone, , ‘New Light on the Hereford Map’, The Geographical Journal, 131 4 (1965), 446–62Google Scholar. Brief guides are provided by Moir, A. L. and Letts, M. A., The World Map in Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1971)Google Scholar, and Jancey, M., Mappa Mundi: The Map of the World in Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1987)Google Scholar.

³ Harvey, P. D. A., Mappa Mundi. The Hereford World Map (London and Hereford, 1996)Google Scholar.

⁴ ‘And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled’.

⁵ The three are Nicodoxus, Theodotus and Policlitus; Didymus is omitted. Thus the author of the map may have drawn upon a particular recension of the so-called Cosmographia of Ethicus (Bevan, and Phillott, , Medieval Geography, 14–15)Google Scholaror he may have made the change deliberately: see below.

⁶ d'Avezac, M. A. P., Note sur la Mappemonde Historiée de la Cathédrale de Hereford. Determination de sa Date et de ses Sources (Paris, 1862), 9Google Scholar.

⁷ A convenient introduction to medieval mappae mundi, with some (woefully incomplete) reference to the place of the Hereford Map among them, may be found in Flint, V.I.J., The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus (Princeton, 1992), 5–18Google Scholar.

⁸ Harvey, , Mappa Mundi, 10Google Scholar.

⁹ Bevan, and Phillott, , Medieval Geography, pp. 6–8Google Scholar, revisedHarvey, , Mappa Mundi, 7–10Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Though built on the sites of earlier castles and finished years later, both Caernarvon and Conway were fortified in 1283 as the first foundations after the conquest of Wales. Morris, J., The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901), 198Google Scholar.

¹¹ Crone, , The World Map, 14–22Google Scholar. For the possible late-thirteenth-century date of certain of the itineraries see especially Crone, , ‘New light’, 452–62Google Scholar. Crone thought it may have been made in aid of persons actually going on a journey: ibid. 462.

¹² See the discussion in The Observer 13 and 20 August 1989, 2 and 10 and, especially, by Martin Bailey on 5 November of the same year; also Harvey, , Mappa Mundi, 12–14Google Scholar.

¹³ Richard Gough said that it ‘served antiently for an altarpiece in this church’ (the church of Hereford Cathedral that is); British Topography, i (London, 1780)Google Scholar, quoted by Crone, , The World Map, 1Google Scholar.

¹⁴ The matter is carefully discussed by Kupfer, M., ‘Medieval World Maps: Embedded Images, Interpretive Frames’, Word and Image, 10(3) (1994), 262–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar(especially 271–5). She doubts the altarpiece theory and suggests instead that the map occupied some place ‘within the architectural fabric’ of an ecclesiastical building which was accessible to the laity.

¹⁵ For a recent discussion of the similarities between the Ebstorf and Hereford maps see Dalché, P. Gautier, La ‘Descriptio Mappae Mundi’ de Hugues de Saint Victor (Paris, 1988), 181–92Google Scholar. The dating of the Ebstorf map is fully discussed in Kugler, H., ed. Ein Weltbild vor Columbus. Die Ebstonfer Weltkarte (Munich, 1991)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Bevan, and Phillott, , Medieval Geography, xxxvi–xxxixGoogle Scholar. This manuscript is described in Flint, V.I.J., ‘The Imago Mundi of Honorius Augustodunensis’, Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire, 49 (1982), 24Google Scholar and, more fully, in James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, i (Cambridge, 1912)Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Tuz ki cest estorie ont

Ou oyront ou liront ou veront

Prient a Jhesu en deyte

De Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford eyt pite

Ki lat fet e compasse

Ki ioie en eel li seit done.

¹⁸ Denholm-Young, N., ‘The Mappa Mundi of Richard of Haldingham at Hereford’, Speculum, 32 (1957), 308 and 3141CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁹ On the association of the words used with instruction see Levy, B., ‘Signes et Communications “Extraterrestres”. Les Inscriptions Marginales de la Mappemonde de Hereford (13^c Siécle)’, in La Grande Aventure de la Decouverte du Monde au Moyen Age (Greifswald, 1996), 37–9Google Scholar. On the Arma Christi rolls see Robbins, R. H., ‘The “Arma Christi” Rolls’, Modern Language Review, 34 (1939), 415–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am grateful to Dr Jeanne Krochialis for the latter reference.

²⁰ The most recent full discussions of Richard's career are those of Denholm-Young, , ‘The Mappa Mwndi’, 307–14Google Scholarand Yates, W. N., ‘The Authorship of the Hereford mappa mundi and the Career of Richard de Bello’, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club 41(2) (1974), 165–72Google Scholar. The references provided byEmden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, i (Oxford, 1959), 556Google Scholar, are also helpful. Here I shall dissent, however, from the arguments of all three; this as a result of incorporating the more recent editions of Le Neve and, in particular, of returning to the sources with the invaluable help of Dr Diana Greenway. Her timely intervention, indeed, led me to rewrite this section of the paper after its delivery to the Society. I am most grateful to her.

²¹ The deanery of Sleaford was a large one, later divided into Old and New Sleaford, and the tithes of Holdingham formed part of the endowment of the prebend. An idea of the extent of medieval Lafford, or Sleaford, may be gained from Humphery-Smith, C. R., The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (Chichester, 1984)Google Scholar. Holdingham had been, it seems, fully absorbed into New Sleaford by the sixteenth century, but a district so named is clearly marked on the 1891 Ordnance Survey map of Lincolnshire.

²² Greenway, D. E., John le Neve Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300, iii Lincoln (London, 1977), 20 and 73Google Scholar. Hereinafter Fasti.

²³ It is possible that Richard held a dispensation from his duties in Lafford after 1265, to enable him to attend the schools, although no such dispensation has survived.

²⁴ Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend, ed. Davis, F. N.et al. (Lincoln, 1925), 72Google Scholar

²⁵ ‘Item libet Ade de Belle [sic] capelano pro altaria sancte Lucye xiii.s.iiii.d.anno octavo’: Lincoln Archives Office, Cv/1. The treasurer was required, among his many other duties ‘luminaria ecclesie ministrare’;Wordsworth, C. and Bradshaw, H., Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, ii (Cambridge, 1897), 160Google Scholar.

²⁶ I am indebted to Dr Diana Greenway for drawing my attention to his obituary, which is entered in the Lincoln Residentiary Roll of 1278, and dated 4 November. Lincoln Cathedral Archives, Cv/i. This entry remained unnoticed in all previous reconstructions of Richard's career.

²⁷ Greenway, , Fasti, iiiLincoln, 74Google Scholar. John appointed one Robert of Whitmore to the vicarage on the death of Henry of Swindirby in 1284, and was himself dead by 1286; The Rolls and Register of Bishop Oliver Sutton 1280–1299 ed. Hill, R. M. T., i (Lincoln, 1948), 58, 90Google Scholar. This Robert may the same ‘Master Robert de Laforda’ who acquires a licence in 1289 to hold a benefice besides his canonry and Southwell prebend.Bliss, W. K., Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, i 1198–1304 (London, 1893)Google Scholar. There is no mention after this of Master Richard de Bello at Lafford.

²⁸ Webb, J., A Roll of the Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford During part of the Tears 1289 and 1291 (London, Camden Society, 1853–1854), 20, 151Google Scholar. Denhom-Young, (‘The Mappa Mundt, 309)Google Scholarsuggests that the meat was a haunch of venison, but the context implies a large piece of fatted calf.

²⁹ Horn, J. M., Fasti 1300–1541, ii Hereford (London, 1962), 38Google Scholar; Registrum Ricardi de Swinfield Episcopi Herefordensis, ed. Capes, W. W. (London, 1909), 536Google Scholar.

³⁰ He served, for instance, as proctor for Swinfield, with Adam of Orleton, at a synod in St Paul's in 1313. Capes, , Registrum, 491Google Scholar.

³¹ Greenway, D. E., Fasti, iv Salisbury (London, 1991), 49Google Scholar;The Rolk and Register, ed. Hill, , i 229–30Google Scholar.

³² Greenway, , Fasti, iv Salisbury, 64 and 70Google Scholar.

³³ At the death of the previous holder, William of Savoy, Highworth had been collated to John of Frescobaldi. Bishop Simon of Ghent inhibited the institution of John, and protected Richard's rights with some ferocity against the foreigner, but the matter was not resolved until 1308, when papal intervention adjudged the benefice finally to Richard. Horn, J. M., Fasti, iii Salisbury (London, 1962), 58Google Scholar.

³⁴ Richard became prominent in Salisbury affairs from his very first collation there, appearing frequently in Bishop Simon's register as a witness to institutions to canonries. See, for these preferments, Registrum Simonis de Gandavo Diocesis Saresbiriensis 1297–1315, ed. Flower, C.T. and Dawes, M. C. B. (Oxford, 1934), 620, 641, 719–20Google Scholar and passim.

³⁵ This too may be explained by Richard's Salisbury connections, for the bishop of Lichfield was, at the time, Roger of Longespée (bishop 1257–95), fourth (and natural) son of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury. Gibbs, M. and Lang, J., The Bishops and Reform 1215–1272 (Oxford, 1934), 190 and 556Google Scholar.

³⁶ He became subdeacon in 1293 and priest in 1294; Yates, , ‘The Authorship’, 170Google Scholar. Yates points here to the fact that some of the secular cathedrals of England were exceedingly tolerant of deficient orders among their prebendaries, and began to correct these deficiencies only gradually, and after the condemnation of them by the second Council of Lyons, 1274. He suggests, indeed, that Richard of Lafford himself may have resigned his treasurership as a result of these corrections.

³⁷ Greenway, , Fasti, iii Lincoln, 20Google Scholar. Denholm-Young, , The Mappa Mundi, 311–13Google Scholar.

³⁸ The Sussex branch may have produced the Richard de Bello who, in 1260, was given a dispensation to hold one benefice with cure of souls as well as the rectories of ‘Kingesnade and Demecherethe’ (Kingsworth and Dymchurch) in Kent he already held.Bliss, , Calendar, 370Google Scholar. There was still a de Bello at Kingsworth in the 1290s. Calendar of Patent Rolls 1292–1301, 93. This circumstance would, according to Emden, (A Biographical, 556Google Scholar) have made this Richard too old in 1260 to have been the same as the Richard de Bello of the later preferments. Emden decided, therefore, that the Richard of the southern branch must have been the same as the prebendary of Lafford and the maker of the map, but distinct from the later Richard de Bello who prospered.We should now, however, detach the Sussex branch from the present discussion.

³⁹ The surname ‘de Bello’ or ‘de la Batayl’ appears quite frequently in the registers of the Lincoln diocese (see, for example,Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend1w, ed. Davis, , 1811Google Scholar; The Roll and Register, ed. Hill, , v, 32, vii, 12Google Scholar). There was a ‘Batayle Hall’ in Oxford, of which one ‘R. de las Bataylle’ (perhaps this one or a near relative) was, in 1300, in charge of the rents; Emden, , A Biographical, 566Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Prestwich, M., Edward I (London, 1988), 415–17Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Emdenl, , A Biographical, ii 804Google Scholar. Emden attributes the decision to Pecham, but the date, from the Annals of Dunstable, places it within Kilwardby's archiepiscopate. The coadjutor is unnamed; Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, H. R., iii (Rolls Series 36, London, 1864), 268Google Scholar.

⁴² Registrum Epistolarum Fratris Johmnis Peckham Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, ed. Martin, C. Y., i (London, 1882), 70–1Google Scholar.

⁴³ Greenway, , Fasti, iii Lincoln, 37Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Simon's name first occurs in the December of that year. Greenway, , Fasti, iii Lincoln, 17–18Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Acta Sanctorum Oct. 1, 705b (hereafter AS).

⁴⁶ Emden, , A Biographical, i, 348Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ The residence lists for 1278 show that the treasurer (unnamed) tended frequently to be in residence. Lincoln Archives Office Cv/i. On the Residentiary Rolls see alsoBradshaw, H. and Wordsworth, C., Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, ii (Cambridge, 1897), ccvi–ccixGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁸ Thomas Cantilupe was collated to the Lincoln benefice of Coleby in 1265, and he seems to have held it until he became bishop of Hereford in 1275, when a Master Gilbert of Heywode succeeded him. Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend, ed. Davis, , 20, 67Google Scholar. The fourteenth–century tomb of the third Baron Cantilupe, still in the cathedral, attests to a continuing family interest.

⁴⁹ Richard Gravesend had been a supporter of the baronial cause in 1258–65 with Cantilupe. See Emden, , A Biographical, ii, 803‐4Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Webbl, , A Roll, lxivGoogle Scholar. See alsoEmden, , A Biographical, iii, 1833–1834Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, , iii, 276–9Google Scholar(Annals of Dunstable).

⁵² A papal dispensation, though necessary, seems to have been deemed by him sufficient check to abuses, together with local episcopal supervision.

⁵³ The generally furious opposition to the Council of Reading shows that there were many such critics; cf. Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., Councils and Synods, ii 1209–1303 (Oxford, 1964), 828Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ He begins his letter: ‘Frequenter ea quae ad remedium animarum salubriter ordinantur, suadente humani generis inimico, tendunt ad noxam, et per malorum machinationes miserrrime pervertuntur’, and goes on to speak of‘subversio’ in connection with these schemes.

⁵⁵ For an excellent account of King Edward I's hostility towards Pecham's appointment and attitudes see Prestwich, , Edward I, 249–51Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ For accounts of Cantilupe's conflict with Pecham see Douie, D., Archbishop Pecham (Oxford, 1952), 192–200Google Scholarand Finucane, R. C., The Cantilupe–Pecham Controversy; in St Thomas Cantilupe Bishop of Hereford, ed. Jancey, M. (Hereford, 1982), 103–23Google Scholar. King Edward sent a letter ahead to the Cardinal Matthew Orsini asking for special attention to be given to the Bishop of Hereford. He also granted him protection and safe–conduct; Finucane, , ‘The Cantilupe–Pecham Controversy’, 108Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Webb, , A Roll, lxvGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁸ Simon of Ghent was judge delegate in 1286 in Bishop Swinfield's prebendal litigation in Rome and, in 1288, was arbitrator in Swinfield's border disputes with the Bishop of St Asaph. In 1289 Swinfield acted as mediator at Oxford between the masters and the Bishop of Lincoln whilst Simon was still archdeacon there.Capes, , Registrum, iii, 67 and 190Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Douie, , Archbishop Pecham, 217Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ One ‘Magister Ricardus’, perhaps our Richard de Bello, appears in Sutton's Register in 1294 as an official of Simon when the latter was at Oxford. The Rolls and Register, ed. Hill, , vii, 55Google Scholar.

⁶¹ AS, 582–4. On this tomb see Marchall, G., ‘The Shrine of St Thomas de Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral’, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (1930), 34–50Google Scholar.

⁶² Finucane, R. C., Miracles and Pilgrims (London, 1977), 174Google Scholar. The bishops, besides Swinfield, were those of Worcester, London and Rochester.Registrum Thome de Cantilupo Episcopi Herefordensis (1275–1282), ed. Griffiths, R. G. and Capes, W. W. (London, 1907), iiiGoogle Scholar. The Bishop of Worcester, Godfrey Giffard, had been chancellor to King Henry III and the Bishop of London, Richard Gravesend, was a nephew of Richard Gravesend, former Bishop of Lincoln. See Fryde, E. B. et al. eds., Handbook of British Chronology (Cambridge, 1996), 85Google Scholar.

⁶³ Capes, , Registrum, 234–5Google Scholar; Webb, , The Roll, Appendix xxivGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁴ Capes, , Registrum, iiiGoogle Scholar. The dossier is printed in part in AS, 1 Oct., 541–705, but an edition of the fourteenth–century manuscript record (Ms. Vatican City, Vat. Lat. 4015) is still badly needed.

⁶⁵ AS, 1 Oct., 705.

⁶⁶ See AS 594–5 for the enormous list of gifts to the tomb and attestations of miracles preceding the commission. The 1,000 waxen models of body–parts healed and the three carriages left by the lame who were cured would themselves have required more space than the Lady Chapel could provide, not to speak of the 170 silver ships (in thanksgiving for rescues at sea), the 180 crutches and the 77 models of animals and birds brought back from the dead.

⁶⁷ AS, 567–8. A child falls into the river and appears to drown. He is pulled out, his mouth is opened with a little knife to let the water out and he is held upside down and shaken. Thomas makes the sign of the cross in his general direction, and the child revives as a result of this last intervention, says the dossier.

⁶⁸ Bishop of Worcester, 1236–66, at whose tomb there had also been miracles and pilgrims, it takes pains to tell us; AS, 544.

⁶⁹ He was strikingly fair, for instance, over his own father's will.AS, 543.

⁷⁰ AS, 544, 546.

⁷¹ AS, 565.

⁷² Registrum Thome, ed. Griffiths, and Capes, , xxxvi–xiiGoogle Scholar.

⁷³ The buying–over of the Welsh rebels, for instance, was preceded, says the dossier, by a dramatisation of the liturgy of excommunication against the sinning Welsh invaders. Interestingly, reference to some of Thomas's episcopal opponents follows this episode immediately; his battle with Richard Carew, Bishop of St David's, over Hereford's right to consecrate the church at Abbey Dore, won in fact by Cantilupe after reference to the royal courts, and Cantilupe's furious struggles with Pecham over the Council of Reading: AS, 565–7Registrum Thome,ed. Griffith, and Capes, , xxxiv–xxxvGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁴ AS, 566–7.

⁷⁵ Cantilupe's struggle with Peter of Langona for the prebend of Preston, for instance, and his hearty dislike of ‘Burgundians’: Registrum Thome, ed. Griffiths, and Capes, , xxiv–xxviiGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁶ AS, 563-5; Atomies, ed. Luard, , iv, 476Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ See Webb, , A Roll, i, xxiv, ii, 125Google Scholarand Appendix I, 201.

⁷⁸ Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edward I 1272–1279 (London, 1900), 490–1Google Scholar. This entry gives a very full account.Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward I 1272–1281 (London, 1901), 284Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ The retaining bond for the champion Cantilupe specially engaged to fight, if he must, and the result of the battle are enrolled in his Register. Repstrum Thome, ed. Griffiths, and Capes, , xxviii-xxix, 201, 227–8Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ AS, 564: ‘Et tune dictus dominus Thomas, qui fecerat multos venatores et canes venaticos congregari, ilia die ac tribus sequentibus fecit palam et publice venari in nemore supradicto. Et licte dictus dominus comes fuisset comminatus in praedicto suo recessu … nullum tamen tune, nee etiam postmodum opposuit impedimentum in praedictis domino Thomae vel successoribus eiusdem. Et dixit [i.e. the reporting witness] quod ista fuerunt publice et notorie facta et sunt publica et notoria in partibus illis…’.

⁸¹ Canon Moir was rightly puzzled by this scene. ‘Who is this unnamed rider?’; A. Moir, L., The World Map in Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1971), 12Google Scholar.

⁸² ‘The Mappa Mundi, 312.

⁸³ Levy, , ‘Signes’, 44–5Google Scholar. He makes no reference to the hunting dispute, but does hazard the guess, through the connection with Richard de Bello, that the rider might be Richard Swinfield. I am most grateful to him for allowing me to read this article in advance of its publication.

⁸⁴ AS, 548. Registrum Thome, ed. Griffiths, and Capes, , xviiGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁵ Gough, H., The Itinerary of King Edward I Throughout His Reign (Paisley, 1900), i, 149–50Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ Salzman, L. E., Edward 1 (London, 1968), 188Google Scholar. Webb, , A Roll, xlix–lGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁷ The World Map, 8.

⁸⁸ Lunt, W., Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge Mass., 1939), 311–17Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ Lunt, , Financial Relations, 330–8Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ The Bishop of Chichester was still recalcitrant in 1277. Lunt, , Financial Relations, 257-9, 324–8Google Scholar.

⁹¹ Powicke argues convincingly that Edward I was wholly sincere as a crusader; Powicke, F. M., King Henry III and The Lord Edward, ii (Oxford, 1947), 729‐30Google Scholar.

⁹² Morgan argues for a Lincoln origin for the map; Morgan, N., Early Gothic Manuscripts ii 1250–1285 (London, 1988), 198Google Scholar. Lincoln certainly figures prominently upon it. In 1280 the bones of St Hugh of Lincoln (canonised 1220) were translated to a new setting, in the presence of Bishop Oliver Sutton and the king. The map may have been begun, then, as a decoration for St Hugh's tomb. I suspect, indeed, that it was, but the further examination of this hypothesis must await another occasion. In further support of a Northern origin we might note that the Yorkshire river system is particularly accurately traced on the map.

⁹³ This judgement scene has echoes, in the Anglo–Norman texts which accompany it, of Anglo–Norman Apocalypses and so, again, of Thomas's interests.Levy, , ‘Signes’, p. 11Google Scholar. The curious image it has of the bare–breasted Virgin is particularly well suited to the Lady Chapel, in which newly delivered mothers were accustomed to be ‘churched’.

⁹⁴ Bevan, and Phillott, , Medieval Geography, 83Google Scholar.