Observations placeholder
The Saint-Sever Beatus world map, made at the Abbey of St. Sever in about 1050
Identifier
011519
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Saint Beatus of Liébana (c. 730–c. 800) was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias, in northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains of the region of Liébana, in what is now Cantabria. The world map from Saint-Sever Beatus measures 37 X 57 cm and was painted c. 1050 A.D. as an illustration to Beatus's work at the Abbey of Saint-Sever in Aquitaine, on the order of Gregori de Montaner]], Abbot from 1028 to 1072.
I have included this map because it is less spiritual and more historical and it is interesting to note the differences. The egg shape is still there and the symbolism of city and river or stream, but what has gone is the intensive use of religious figures round its exterior. Nevertheless it is essentially a spiritual mapping, showing as it does the ocean and the cone islands, cities, palaces as well as mountains. It should also be clear it makes no attempt at geography. But the person going the map was not using the results of spiritual experience to draw it, but derived records of experience and it tends to show.
A description of the experience
