El mundo para una reina: los mappaemundi de Sancha de León (1013-1067)

Abstract

This article focuses on three mappaemundi included in two manuscripts commissioned by the queen Sancha of Leon (1013-1067): two illustrate the Commentary on the Apocalypsis of Beatus of Liebana in the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana, and another the Etymologiae of Isidore of the Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial. Although both manuscripts were made in the same year, probably in the same scriptorium, and under the sponsorship of this queen, the three maps are very different. Analysis of these maps shows us three medieval cartographical models that were widely diffused within the Hispanic Christian milieu. Although these three maps let Sancha see the world from different perspectives, they are all characterized by their omission of the Islamic presence in the southern Iberian Peninsula.