Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article traces the reception of the description of the known world that opens Paulus Orosius’ Historiae, from its wide circulation in the early Middle Ages to its marginalization by first-generation humanists in the fourteenth century. Particular attention is given to two roughly contemporaneous translations of the Historiae—the Old English Orosius, and the Arabic Kitāb Hurūshiyūsh—which reworked and supplemented Orosius’ geography in innovative ways. A concluding section argues that it is on mappae mundi that the most substantial engagement with the convergence of geography and history, implicit at the opening of Orosius’ work, took place.
DOI: 10.1093/bics/qbaf009
Author: Alfred Hiatt
Institution: Queen Mary University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,285
OpenAlex ID: W4411588642