This chapter is the first of three to examine the surviving copy of the Peutinger map from multiple perspectives. Here the copy as material object forms the focus of attention together with its paleography, which has never before been accorded the close scrutiny that Martin Steinmann devotes to it in section 2. Paleography, in turn, forms the basis for him to consider what may be determined about the exemplar of our copy (that is, the version of the map from which it was made); the copyist(s); and the date and place where the copy was produced. Chapter 3 then analyzes the design and character of the map, and Chapter 4 considers how faithfully the surviving copy reproduces the lost original.

MATERIAL, CONDITION, AND CONSERVATION

Coauthored with Martin Steinmann

Today, the map is most often thought of as eleven separate sheets of parchment, probably vellum. This is by no means an inaccurate view, but it is equally important to bear in mind that from the outset the eleven were joined to form a long strip. For this purpose, they were not sewn together – as was more typical medieval practice – but glued. A narrow strip at one end of a sheet was overlapped, and thus hidden, by a corresponding strip at the end of the adjacent sheet. [Fig. 1] Because all the hidden strips are blank, we can be sure that the full extent of the parchment base required for the map was prepared before copying began.