Abstract (eng)
Matthaeus Parisiensis, in English Matthew Paris, (ca. 1200-1259) was regarded as man of many capabilities during his period of critical reception until the end of the 19th century: as chronicler, “[…] the best of our Historians […]” as well as analyst and even as regional historian - without mentioning his non historiographical oeuvre.
Before the beginning of the 20th century, however, he had never been regarded as an outstanding cartographer as he is now in our days.
The conclusion of this analysis leaves no doubt at all about this fact: already in the 13th century two copies of his writings were made, in the 14th century the copies numbered even 17 and from the 16th to the 18th century altogether five copies of his works were produced while in the 17th century, simultaneously to the handwritten transmission, also printed editions started to appear.
Among this extensive number of manuscripts and prints there is just one manuscript in which in addition to the text also one of Matthaeus Parisiensis’s maps is copied, i.e. London, British Library, Cotton Ms. Nero D I. This map copy is not a copy of the Britannia maps much vaunted by today’s scientists, however, or of the Itinerary- and Palestine Maps, but of his so called Mappa mundi, neither spectacular because of its execution nor because of its size.
Besides the above mentioned there exist two more map copies which were copied independently from the rest of the contents of the same manuscript into a completely different context. The earlier one dating back to the 14th century is a complete but heavily burned copy of the Itinerary- and Palestine Map at the beginning of a chartulary.
The much later one from the early 17th century it is also a manual copy of the Itinerary- and Palestina Map included in a manually copied anthology.
These three copies of Matthaeus Parisiensis’s extensive oeuvre are far too few in order to attribute to him a cartographical tradition in the sense of Ranulf Higden or Beatus of Lièbana. Recently Edson counted 20 later map copies for Higden and 16 for Beatus. In comparison the three copies of maps according to Matthaeus Parisiensis are a marginally small number.
The motives behind the creation of these three copies are different for every single one. One common feature can be ascertained nevertheless: each map was copied separated from its original context. In doing so not only the cartographical context was neglected, but also the thematic context with regard to the manuscript contents.
The copies, consequently, were based upon a conscious choice of the material preferring one map to another.
This conclusion also illustrates the critical reception of Matthaeus’s maps of Britain which evidently were not able to attract any further attention.
Matthaeus Parisiensis can still be regarded as cartographical genius of his time though his oeuvre has never succeeded in establishing a cartographical tradition.