Digitization Project: Get Access To the Earliest Medieval Map of Britain: Digital Gough Map Launched

The fifteen-month AHRC-funded [Arts and Humanities Research Council] project used an innovative approach that explores the map’s ‘linguistic geographies’, that is the writing used on the map by the scribes who created it, with the aim of offering a re-interpretation of the Gough Map’s origins, provenance, purpose and creation of which so little is known.

Although the identity of the map-maker is unknown, it is now possible to reveal that the text on the Gough Map is the work of at least two scribes: the original 14th-century scribe and a 15th-century reviser.

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One of key outcomes of Linguistic Geographies is to make available online a searchable version of the Gough Map based upon a digital image of the map.  The website features a zoomable, pan-able digital version of the Gough Map – this map is fully searchable and browse-able by place name (current and medieval), and also by geographical features. Once clicking on a chosen location, information regarding that location’s geographical appearance, etymology, appearance on earlier maps, and much, much more is revealed;

The website also includes a series of scholarly essays discussing the map; latest news about the project and a blog, among others.

Read the Complete Announcement

Direct to Gough Map