After the brilliant theories of Alexandria, the world appeared to fall into a cartographic dark age for about a thousand years.

Still the great maps of the middle ages, such as the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral, had their own different but lofty ambitions of metaphysical meaning - to provide a map-guide for a largely illiterate public to a Christian life.

Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4. Show less