0:00:06 > 0:00:12The British Library in London is home to a staggering four and a half million maps.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Mysterious and beautiful, these rarely seen treasures
0:00:18 > 0:00:21are much more than just physical depictions of the world.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30A map is definitely by far the best synthesis of topography,
0:00:30 > 0:00:35the geography of a place, together with its history, and of course art as well,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38so you've got great themes all combining in one
0:00:38 > 0:00:42to produce something of huge beauty.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47Our love affair with maps is as old as civilisation itself.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55Each map tells its own story and hides its own secrets.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Maps delight, they unsettle,
0:01:00 > 0:01:05they reveal deep truths, not just about where we come from,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07but about who we are.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11A map is a thing of beauty.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15It's a place where perhaps you express the cosmos, you try and
0:01:15 > 0:01:19bring together the whole view of the world so you can understand it.
0:01:21 > 0:01:28The medieval masterpiece known as the Hereford Mappa Mundi is the world's oldest surviving wall map.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32It still resides where it was made over 700 years ago,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36a unique insight into a vanished world.
0:01:40 > 0:01:46It's probably the best way into the medieval mind
0:01:46 > 0:01:52because in it are drawn together so many aspects of medieval thinking.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55I think the point of the map
0:01:55 > 0:02:01was to make you say, "Wow, that's extraordinary!"
0:02:01 > 0:02:08The Hereford Mappa Mundi has inspired wonder and caused confusion for centuries.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10It seems to defy logic.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14It's a map and a medieval encyclopaedia
0:02:14 > 0:02:17that charts both the known world of the physical
0:02:17 > 0:02:19and the unknown world of belief.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42The Mappa Mundi has spent almost all of its life in one of Britain's
0:02:42 > 0:02:45oldest ecclesiastical buildings, Hereford Cathedral.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50There were many Mappa Mundi in medieval times.
0:02:50 > 0:02:55But the Hereford map is the largest to have survived intact.
0:03:00 > 0:03:06When it was made in 1300, Europe stood on the verge of the Renaissance.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11The poet Dante was about to embark on his epic work, the Divine Comedy,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15while the Venetian Explorer, Marco Polo,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18was on his pioneering travels in Asia.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26Painted on a single sheet of calf skin, the Mappa Mundi -
0:03:26 > 0:03:29the name means 'cloth of the world' -
0:03:29 > 0:03:33is five feet high and four feet across.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37It's a map of a teeming world, rendered in dizzying detail.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42One of the greatest surviving art works of the middle ages,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45it rarely leaves its glass case.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The ravages of time and past neglect have taken their toll,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52leaving parts of it dark and damaged.
0:03:56 > 0:04:02But it still exerts an extraordinary power over those who come into contact with it.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07I remember seeing it when I was eight years old.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13To me, it was really intriguing
0:04:13 > 0:04:19and fascinating, like seeing a medical specimen squeezed into a jar.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Something that captured my imagination as a child.
0:04:25 > 0:04:31Dominic Harbour came to Hereford as a student to help prepare a new exhibition for the map.
0:04:31 > 0:04:3720 years later, he's still here, as the Cathedral's Commercial director,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42and has seen thousands of visitors encounter the map for the first time.
0:04:42 > 0:04:48I think, actually, it completely disarms anybody who stands in front of it.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53It's really a total cacophony of too much going on at the same time,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56which, if you think of the culture that produced it,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59it's a pretty good description, really.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02It's kind of unfathomable
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and you have to sort of immerse yourself into it.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13CRIES OF BATTLE
0:05:24 > 0:05:29The map was the work of a highly skilled team of scribes and artists.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34Its original creator left behind his mark.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38'Pray for Richard of Lafford who had it made',
0:05:38 > 0:05:40reads a caption in Norman French.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46At the heart of the map
0:05:46 > 0:05:49is Jerusalem.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55And at its centre, a tantalising clue to what was probably the first act of the map makers,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58a tiny pin prick made 700 years ago
0:05:58 > 0:06:02where a compass was used to trace the circular tower.
0:06:06 > 0:06:12From that tiny, ragged hole at its centre, spreads a map of amazing complexity.
0:06:12 > 0:06:151,000 written legends,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19500 drawings of the cities and towns of the known world,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22and the monstrous races of the unknown world.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Among them, the Essedones, eating the corpses of their parents.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39And the Sciapods, using one huge foot as a sun shade.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Small wonder, you might think,
0:06:43 > 0:06:49that the Victorian scholar, Sir Charles Raymond Beasley, called it 'a monstrosity'.
0:06:50 > 0:06:58The Hereford Mappa Mundi, like other works of its genre, are very confusing.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01There are no country boundaries.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Everything seems out of place.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09However, it requires learning about the medieval world view
0:07:09 > 0:07:14and trying to come to terms with the internal
0:07:14 > 0:07:16structure of the map.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21The medieval world map has its own internal principles of organisation.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24You just have to learn it.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29And where better to start to unravel the mysteries of this map
0:07:29 > 0:07:36than at the heart of cartographic learning, London's British Library?
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Its four million maps are under the care of a curator who is both
0:07:39 > 0:07:45a world expert on cartography and a trustee of the Mappa Mundi.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Peter Barber.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Like other scholars of the map, he has had a life-long fascination
0:07:53 > 0:07:58with the Mappa Mundi, and knows how tricky it can be to decipher.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04The first-time viewer would be completely lost by the map.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07You've got none of the familiar cities or landmarks.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09All you have is this
0:08:09 > 0:08:12collection of weird-looking animals
0:08:12 > 0:08:16and lots and lots and lots of text which, being in Latin, you can't read.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20This is totally incomprehensible to most people.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28At first glance, it's the geography of the Hereford map that is immediately confusing.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30We're used to maps that face North,
0:08:30 > 0:08:36but the Mappa Mundi follows an older convention and faces East.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40The map as geography is obviously distorted
0:08:40 > 0:08:43because it's got East at the top.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46But if you turn it round,...
0:08:46 > 0:08:48all of a sudden
0:08:48 > 0:08:51it does become slightly more familiar.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55You can recognise immediately Sicily, which is a triangle.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00That's actually quite accurate. You see Italy. You see Greece.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03You see most notably the Mediterranean.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05You have Britain at the top left-hand corner.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08You have the west coast of Europe.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Most importantly, down here you have Africa, or at least North Africa,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and to the right you have Asia.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21And actually, it's certainly recognisable, even if distorted.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25It's also full of mysteries.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29You can't begin to unravel everything and nobody has yet.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32So you can come back to it again and again with new questions
0:09:32 > 0:09:34and see new things.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38And, um... It is endlessly absorbing.
0:09:45 > 0:09:51Delving deeper into the map, beyond its physical geography, another layer of meaning appears.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57The Mappa Mundi is also a complete history of the world.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Among the cities and towns, the rivers and seas,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08the map also depicts events from the past,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11events separated sometimes by thousands of years.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15CLAP OF THUNDER
0:10:20 > 0:10:26We see Noah's Ark and the Crucifixion of Christ,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29but we are also shown Caesar sending out surveyors to map the world
0:10:29 > 0:10:32before Christ was even born.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42Across its extraordinary surface, geography, time and history mingle.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45The present collides with the distant past.
0:10:47 > 0:10:53But the Mappa Mundi's real beauty is that it is much more than just a map.
0:10:55 > 0:11:01The Hereford Map was not used the way we use a map for getting from point A to point Z.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05It was not a route-finding map.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09It was an imago mundi, a picture of the world,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12a kind of display of all creation
0:11:12 > 0:11:17laid out, extended, before the viewer.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20It was a marvel, a mirabilia mundi.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23What the map is for
0:11:23 > 0:11:27is to plot, if you like, human history.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31That's why it's orientated with East at the top,
0:11:31 > 0:11:36because human history starts - this is Christian human history -
0:11:36 > 0:11:43and human history starts in the East, in the Garden of Eden with the creation of Adam and Eve.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47The geography you want to think of as a background.
0:11:47 > 0:11:54So it's history, from the beginning of time to the expected, anticipated end of time.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01And where did the map makers source the knowledge,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04the history, the geography, that is pictured on the map?
0:12:04 > 0:12:07From writers of the distant past.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12Some, like the scholar Orosius, pupil of the great St Augustine,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16were writing hundreds of years before the map was made.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Others, like the Roman Pliny, had been dead for well over 1,000 years.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24I think that's a river of gold, isn't it?
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Peter Barber and Mappa Mundi scholar Paul Harvey
0:12:28 > 0:12:34have spent their professional lives deciphering the complex secrets of the map's many sources.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42I like to think of the Hereford map as a patchwork quilt.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47There's lots of little bits and if you know something about the sources,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52you can identify...this little patch came from here.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56You couldn't create something like the Hereford Map
0:12:56 > 0:12:59without relying on a great many different sources,
0:12:59 > 0:13:08and we think the map certainly drew on seven, eight, ten sources fairly directly,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11but possibly rather more.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17And this would have been the sort of illustrative source a map maker might have used.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19One can discern a vast number of sources,
0:13:19 > 0:13:25but it is very difficult since all of the sources tended to repeat what the other sources had said.
0:13:25 > 0:13:32For instance, though in the Hereford world map, you get a specific reference to Orosius,
0:13:32 > 0:13:38Orosius included a lot of information that came from Pliny.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43Pliny's enormous text on natural history,
0:13:43 > 0:13:48which is really a history of the world and everything in the world,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51and the miniature expresses it beautifully.
0:13:51 > 0:13:57On the left you can see Pliny writing his text and outside, through the window,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01you can see all the animals of the world, all the natural features,
0:14:01 > 0:14:07that image really does express the encyclopaedic vision of the classical writers
0:14:07 > 0:14:11which is carried through to medieval Mappa Mundi.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21The map's next layer of content, and by far its most bewildering,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23owes much to Pliny.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28His encyclopaedia lists all the animals and peoples of the world.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32So too does the map.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37At first, we see creatures we would recognise.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Here's a giant lizard basking in the sun.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42There's an elephant.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46But the further we move out from Jerusalem at the centre,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48the wilder the world gets.
0:14:52 > 0:14:58The Mappa Mundi, of course, is one of the finest examples of a medieval bestiary.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02What I find interesting about the beasties on the Mappa
0:15:02 > 0:15:08is what you've got and where you've got them.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10You've got the worst one, the scariest ones,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15the really bizarre ones with big feet over their heads as umbrellas,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19and the ones cannibalising their own parents, these kind of things,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22they're all in Africa, Asia,
0:15:22 > 0:15:27they're in the far north of Russia and the Arctic and the Baltic.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31And that very much reflects the prejudice of the time
0:15:31 > 0:15:34against these unknown parts of the world.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43Here's the Griste in Scandinavia, who make handy blankets from the skins of their enemies.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49Next to them live the Cynocephali, recognisably human but with the heads of dogs.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Then there's the Hermaphrodites, with male and female genitals.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57And the headless Blemyes, with eyes in their chests.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05These monstrous races from the classical past are partly on the map
0:16:05 > 0:16:10to entertain, and partly to preserve classical knowledge.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13But their presence also serves a larger purpose,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16that goes to the heart of the map's deeper religious meaning.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26These are the fabulous races, the so-called monstrous races,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28from Classical Antiquity.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33Augustine talked about these fabulous peoples
0:16:33 > 0:16:37as testifying to the power of God,
0:16:37 > 0:16:45that if God could create these fabulous peoples,
0:16:45 > 0:16:51then he could make bodies suffer eternally in the torments of hell.
0:16:51 > 0:17:00For him, this was proof of the Resurrection with eternal damnation.
0:17:03 > 0:17:11So this was again using mirabilia, a marvel, to prove a theological point.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23So theology is the Mappa Mundi's final layer of meaning.
0:17:23 > 0:17:29And the map's very complexity serves, it turns out, a very specific purpose.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Well, I think the fact that the map is a picture of extraordinary
0:17:36 > 0:17:40confusion is actually extremely important for understanding it.
0:17:40 > 0:17:47The tremendous visual disarray of the map is a sign of man's fallen vision of the world.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51In a way, it directs attention away from the world, away from trying to understand the world,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55towards trying to achieve an understanding of, and a vision of,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58things outside the world, of heavenly things.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05The French philosopher Hugh of St Victor,
0:18:05 > 0:18:12writing when the map was made, wrote, "The whole world is like a book written by the finger of God".
0:18:12 > 0:18:16And there he is, God in the form of Christ in Majesty,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19above the circle of the world.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25To his left, the blessed enter heaven.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29To his right, the damned are ushered into the jaws of hell.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33This is judgement day, the end of time,
0:18:33 > 0:18:38the moment that explains the map and gives it its deeper meaning.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46You see a marvellous recreation of the classical and Christian world,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49and of a world that was dominated by faith.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55A world too which in a way put the world in its possibly proper place.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04There are also scenes in the corners and they put everything
0:19:04 > 0:19:10into context, because at the top, you have the last judgement.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13Even more movingly, at the bottom right,
0:19:13 > 0:19:19you have a scene of a huntsman, of a human being looking back wistfully at the world,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21but being told to proceed.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24And around the world, you have...
0:19:24 > 0:19:29The disc containing the world is fastened to eternity,
0:19:29 > 0:19:36by thongs which read MORS, or Latin for "death".
0:19:37 > 0:19:46It is a very, very sober image or idea, which makes all of sudden,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48the whole of this enormous world in the middle
0:19:48 > 0:19:51seem somewhat less important.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Here is the world, says the map.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Enjoy it. But remember that you will soon leave it.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03The huntsman, about to depart the world, takes one last look back.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08But on the ground, his squire calls out, "Passe avant."
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Pass on, without regret,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14to the next world.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18It's a memento mori,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20that we may live in this world,
0:20:20 > 0:20:24the world is full of good things, it's full of difficulties -
0:20:24 > 0:20:28political relations between France and England, and so on.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29It's full of history,...
0:20:31 > 0:20:34but it's also temporal.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38It comes to an end, as far as our lives come to an end.
0:20:40 > 0:20:46So the map, whilst teeming with life, is actually about death.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49And about how, for the medieval mind,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54belief in the next world was the only certainty.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06700 years on from its creation, that idea of belief and certainty
0:21:06 > 0:21:12continues to fascinate and inspire artists, like Turner Prize winner, Grayson Perry.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17I was asked to give a lecture in Hereford.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21I got there bit early and thought I'd go and see the Mappa Mundi.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24I hadn't thought about it before.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28I was just blown away by it, because I got there and I had it all to myself.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33There was me and the guide, and she took me through it and I was just entranced by this thing.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38Grayson's Map Of Nowhere, made in 2008,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41borrows much from the Hereford Map -
0:21:41 > 0:21:47its circular scheme, its wild mixture of image and text.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52His picture is a very personal take on the idea of mapping belief.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57Like all my works, I didn't start with a super-clear plan.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00That would be boring, to do that.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I just worked my way across. I started in the top left hand corner
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and then three months later, I get to the bottom right hand corner.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10And in between something has happened, and that's how it works for me.
0:22:10 > 0:22:18The idea, to a certain extent, I'm parodying the idea of the intellectual constructs of religion.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23The bottom scene is all these people.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28I sort of imagine them on a kind of Ruritanian pilgrimage,
0:22:28 > 0:22:35and they're all making their way up this mountain, to this holy shrine site at the top,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39which is illuminated by a shaft of heavenly light.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43But if you follow the shaft up, it's coming out of my bum hole,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45so it sort of...
0:22:45 > 0:22:48That's what I was saying about that.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55This map is like the Mappa Mundi in that it's a kind of world view,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59but it's very much a personal, individualistic world view.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03I don't presume to be the voice of anybody else but myself,
0:23:03 > 0:23:08but obviously I've shared values with other people,
0:23:08 > 0:23:12being a fully paid-up member of the chattering classes.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22Grayson's picture and the Mappa Mundi have much in common.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Both are visual encyclopaedias of a complex world.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31Both have at their heart questions of faith and belief.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36But there's one crucial difference - age.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42Time and past neglect have taken their toll on the Hereford map.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47The crucial scene of Christ in Majesty is dark and damaged.
0:23:47 > 0:23:53The rivers and seas, once vividly coloured, have faded to a murky brown.
0:23:53 > 0:23:59But now, using the latest scholarly research, the map is being restored to something like its former glory.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13The Folio Society is preparing the first authentic reproduction of the Mappa Mundi,
0:24:13 > 0:24:19digitally cleaning up the faded original, and restoring its colour.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The rivers are returning to a vivid blue.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30The long-faded green of the sea is being restored.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32Christ shines out once more.
0:24:35 > 0:24:42Even the ivy around the map, invisible for perhaps hundreds of years, grows again.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50At the British Library, Mappa Mundi scholars are gathering
0:24:50 > 0:24:53to see the finished results for the first time.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06The Hereford map has never been digitally photographed in its entirety before.
0:25:06 > 0:25:13Will the wonders of 21st century technology restore the glories of 700 years ago?
0:25:18 > 0:25:25It's strange seeing the original background colour with these fresh colours.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29It's very much brighter than the original.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32It's visually much more interesting.
0:25:32 > 0:25:39I'm really pleased with it. I've been involved in giving advice on various aspects of it.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43But when you look at it as it is, in its final state,
0:25:43 > 0:25:49you can see the birds and the animals quite, quite clearly.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54This is going to be a tremendous aid to people who are
0:25:54 > 0:25:59studying it, not only in detail but also from the wider perspective,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02as an ensemble of information.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08It's striking now, the contrast between the rivers and the sea as well.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10I love it, I absolutely love it.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15I have to keep on telling myself I'm not looking at the original, this is not what it was.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20But as a vision of the original, it's absolutely superb, I think.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28It gets across what an extraordinary spectacle
0:26:28 > 0:26:32the original must have been, it really helps us envision what this
0:26:32 > 0:26:41would have been like to come across in the cathedral as you walked up the aisle, and came across this
0:26:41 > 0:26:44absolutely astonishing object.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51This authentic reproduction of the map opens up new opportunities for
0:26:51 > 0:26:55the future appreciation of the Mappa Mundi.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58It brings the past right into the present,
0:26:58 > 0:27:04marking the latest chapter in its extraordinary ability to fascinate us and draw us in.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17The Hereford map is crucially important,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21because it is the only surviving example
0:27:21 > 0:27:29of a large, almost monumental medieval Mappa Mundi.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37When I look at the medieval past, it makes me think about what is
0:27:37 > 0:27:44going to be left of our civilisation 1,000 years from now.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47What will be around 1,000 years from now?
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Maybe just pieces of art.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Hereford's Mappa Mundi is many things.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00An encyclopaedia of all the world's knowledge,
0:28:00 > 0:28:02a memento mori,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06a remarkable piece of medieval art.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10It remains a unique testament to a vanished world,
0:28:10 > 0:28:17and a vivid illustration of the depth, complexity and artistic genius of maps themselves.
0:28:20 > 0:28:27To find out more about the maps in this series, and to explore the new world of digital mapping,
0:28:27 > 0:28:33go to bbc.co.uk/beautyofmaps
0:28:51 > 0:28:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:55 > 0:28:57E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk