An Unknown Mappamundi in an English Almanac of c.1420 (British Library, Royal MS 17.A.XVI, Folio 2v)

The British Library's vast manuscript collection includes a well-illustrated almanac created in northern England and dated to c.1420. Among its miscellaneous contents are three T-O maps, one of which is the subject of this article. The manuscript as a whole has been discussed in a number of works, but the map in question has received no attention. It is a list map, giving the names of the provinces of the three continents of the world as they were distributed among the three sons of Noah after the Flood. The names of the provinces follow not the Isidorean model, but Nennius's Historia Brittonum (ninth century). Moreover, the position of the continents on the map in Royal MS 17.A.XVI is highly unusual: Europe occupies the largest segment of the map, traditionally dedicated to Asia. Here we consider the map in relation to the manuscript, its textual source and its possible purpose.