Sourcing the Vercelli Map

Object contributed by Heather Wacha

Lately, we’ve been putting some final touches on the Vercelli map’s sources. The Vercelli map was once clearly visible to the naked eye but has sustained much damage since its creation in the 13th century. Today certain parts of the map are missing and other areas are simply no longer legible. MSI has brought back much of the original content of the map and Dr. Helen Davies and I have been working on completing a digital edition, including transcriptions, translations, and notes. Recently, we’ve been tracking down the mapmaker’s sources for certain inscriptions. One super exciting find concerns place names for an area of the map that more or less reflects modern-day Turkey. Apparently, the Vercelli mapmaker was familiar with the Latin poet Ovid and felt the need to include place names that Ovid describes on his travels into exile during the years 8-9 CE. The Vercelli mapmaker has not only put these places on the map, but has also quoted directly from Ovid’s Tristia (Book 1, chapter 10) to complete the descriptions.

The city of Sciticon, for example:

Ovid: inque Propontiacis haerentem Cyzicon (Sciticon) oris, Cyzicon, Haemoniae nobile gentis opus

Vercelli: Sciticon. Hanc civitatem argonaute edificaverunt, et eam Sciticon dixerunt, unde Ovidius hinc que propontiacis herentem Sciticon horis. Sciticon hemonie nobilitatis opus.

Barring the fact that the Vercelli mapmaker’s manuscript source would have had several previous iterations, each providing an opportunity to introduce misspellings and scribal error, there is no doubt that the mapmaker’s description came from a copy of Ovid’s Tristia, and no doubt that the mapmaker had a reason for including it on the map.

We’ve found several other direct quotations, not only from Ovid’s Tristia but from his other works as well. While it may be less surprising to find references to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, we think these references to the Tristia are pretty special! In essence, the Vercelli map gives its readers a visual road map to Ovid’s voyage into exile. Now who would have been interested in that?

Imaging credits: Helen Davies and Katie Albers-Morris