Name: An Alternative T-O Map from Isidore of Seville's 'Etymologies'
Author: Isidore of Seville

The Sunderland Collection

Conrad Winters de Homborch's edition of the 'Etymologies' is the third printed edition of this work; its predecessors were made in Augsburg in 1472, and in Strasbourg around 1473.

This map is a variation of the T-O map that appears in the first edition of this work, published in 1472. It shows a circular Earth surrounded by a nondescript ocean ('Mare Oceanvm') and divided into three parts by a T-shaped body of water. As is typical for T-O maps, Asia occupies the top half of the globe, and Africa and Europe in the bottom right and left respectively. Following Biblical tradition, the names of Noah’s sons are labelled below their corresponding continents: Sem (Asia), Cham (Africa), and Japhet (Europe). The cardinal directions East ('Oriens'), West ('Occi-dens'), North ('Septe.') and South ('Meri.') are also given. 

While in the 1472 edition, the 'T' is simply labelled the 'great sea' and the descender as the Mediterranean, in this map, the 'T' of the 'great sea' is broken into its constituents: the Nile River ('Nilus fluvius') as the right arm of the cross-bar, and the River Don ('Tanai[s] fluvi') as the left arm of the cross-bar,  similar to the world maps by William of Conches.

The additional elements expanding on the rivers is the 'Meotites Palus' (the Don River Delta), derived from Book XIV, which explains that the River Don descends from the mountains of Scythia, separating Europe from Asia and flow into the Black Sea.

This third edition of Isidore of Seville’s 'Etymologies' contains a variation of the T-O map that was included in the first edition, printed in 1472. Asia is shown at the top, Europe on the left, and Africa on the right. The continents are divided by the Nile and Don Rivers and the Mediterranean Sea, and a world ocean encircles the Earth. Cardinal wind directions and the names of the sons of Noah - who were believed to have repopulated the world after the Biblical Flood described in the Book of Genesis - are also shown with their corresponding continents: Sem (Asia), Cham (Africa), and Japhet (Europe). Unlike more traditional T-O maps, this example visually expands on the description of the rivers and Mediterranean Sea: the lower polygon labelled 'Meoti[tes Palus'] represents the Don River Delta flowing into the Black Sea.

Also noted for containing the first printed reference to arithmetic, the 'Etymologies' provided medieval and Renaissance scholars and map makers with an invaluable single source of classical scientific knowledge, and features works by authors such as Pliny the Elder. In addition to geography, the work also covers mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, geology, botany, agriculture, human anatomy, medicine, shipbuilding, architecture, and other technological subjects.

Composed in the seventh century, Isidore of Seville's 'Etymologies' was a primary resource for medieval scholars and map makers, and thousands of manuscript copies survive. His work provided medieval and Renaissance scholars with a vast wealth of ancient scientific knowledge and lexicography, establishing itself as one of the main routes for the transmission of classical learning to the Middle Ages. T-O maps often appear in medieval copies of the 'Etymologies', rendered carefully within the text or drawn in the margins by monks and students studying his words on the layout of the continents in Book XIV of the 'Etymologies'.

His work retained much authority into the sixteenth century, but as experimental science grew in popularity through the Early Modern era, new methods and technologies replaced classical texts as primary tools to explore the world.

T-O map: and alternate design of the first printed map

Illuminated letter

Illuminated letters

A calendar and circular diagram to illustrate the seasons 

Diagrams to illustrate the climate zones, the four elements (air, earth, fire, water), and the elements.

Wind diagram

Tree diagram made with words

Illuminated letter 

An early printed edition of Isidore of Seville’s enormously influential 'Etymologies' with hand-coloured diagrams and illuminated acanthus initials with gold. The work contains one of the earliest printed European world maps, which is on a T-O projection, and medieval diagrams of the winds, the elements, the four seasons, and climatic zones.