Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- General Editor's Introduction
- Preface
- 1 Literary Sources
- 2 The Official Records of Wales and Their Preservation
- 3 The Records of the English Government
- 4 Archives of Individuals and Corporations
- 5 Ecclesiastical Records
- 6 The Antiquaries
- 7 Archaeology and Numismatics
- 8 Cartography and Place-Names
- 9 Conclusion
- Index
8 - Cartography and Place-Names
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- General Editor's Introduction
- Preface
- 1 Literary Sources
- 2 The Official Records of Wales and Their Preservation
- 3 The Records of the English Government
- 4 Archives of Individuals and Corporations
- 5 Ecclesiastical Records
- 6 The Antiquaries
- 7 Archaeology and Numismatics
- 8 Cartography and Place-Names
- 9 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
A historian neglects geography at his peril. Communications, boundaries, farming, prosperity, war, all, especially in the Middle Ages, are directly affected by geography. The influence may be perverse. All boundaries are not natural ones, lines of communication may not in fact be those which a geographer might postulate in abstract: inherent geographical probability is just as dangerous a piece of evidence as Colonel Burne's inherent military probability. But the problems of interpretation merely emphasise the need for an understanding of what geography can offer. It is fashionable nowadays to use social sciences to illumine dark historical places, and anthropology in particular is vouched to warranty rather often: anthropology is a large discipline, and probably many historians' assertions based on Gluckman would barely satisfy in a first-year undergraduate's anthropology essay, but local topographical knowledge and understanding of maps are sufficient geographical understanding for the average historian and are beset with fewer perils than a comparison of Frederick Barbarossa with a Zulu chief.
The historian's interest in maps ought not to begin with the modern Ordnance Survey. Old maps, as well as being decorative, contain essential information about conditions before the Economic Revolution. But the very oldest maps are not particularly helpful. The medieval world-maps are valuable testimonies to current cosmographical ideas, but they have little to offer the Welsh historian. Nor have the celebrated itinerary maps or British maps drawn by Matthew Paris, the St Albans chronicler.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medieval Wales , pp. 213 - 228Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1976