Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth by Alessandro Scafi (review)

REVIEWS 270 the parameters of Roilos’s study is a demanding task; many medievalists, one may assume, are unfamiliar with the extant novels in question, and many readers , one may also assume, will find the prolixity of the first chapter challenging. Still, the book is conveniently organized by rhetorical, allegorical, and comic “modulations.” Now if Roilos will only take on the task of translating these twelfth-century literary specimens, hardly any of which, he notes in his preface, are available in English. CHARLES RUSSELL STONE, English, UCLA Alessandro Scafi, Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth (Chicago : University of Chicago Press 2006) 398 pp., ill. Mapping Paradise situates the concept of earthly paradise—the biblical Garden of Eden—within the history of Christian thought. Alessandro Scafi defines his project as “a conceptual journey into medieval Christianity” in order to discover “the conditions that made it possible to put paradise on maps” (84). Scafi gives priority to theological and hermeneutical conditions. He shows that medieval world maps are visual representations of the doctrines articulated by theologians such as Augustine, Peter Lombard, John Duns Scotus, Martin Luther , and John Calvin. For Scafi and for medieval scholars themselves, all depictions of the world are mappae mundi, whether they are written or drawn. In this way, cartography and exegesis cooperate to convey Christian teachings about the link between heaven and earth, between sacred history and the profane world. Medieval mappae mundi were not intended for navigation or travel. Rather, they were sophisticated attempts to “render visible a place that was geographically inaccessible—yet linked to the inhabited earth by four rivers—and remote in time—yet still relevant as the scene of an essential episode in salvation history ” (84). This conception of Eden as remote in time and space arises from a linguistic ambiguity in Scripture. In Genesis 2.8, God plants a garden in Eden. Eden is qualified by the Hebrew word miqedem, which means both “from the beginning” and “in the east.” Christian Bible translations reflect this uncertainty . The Vulgate adopts the temporal sense (a principio), while the Vetus Latina and English Authorized Version adopt the spatial sense (in oriente, in the east). Early mappae mundi depict Eden in the easternmost regions of the world to suggest its existence at the beginning of time and of space. Scriptural interpretation is the foundation of medieval geography. Mappae mundi reflect a longstanding Christian preference for reading Genesis literally rather than allegorically. The inclination toward literal interpretation emerges in the writings of John Chrysostom, develops in Augustine’s thought, and predominates in the Latin Middle Ages. From this hermeneutical stance, it follows that Eden is a geographical place rather than a spiritual realm or a philosophical metaphor. This theological principle—that Eden was a real geographical locale and Adam and Eve were real historical figures—inspires representations of Eden on maps throughout the medieval period. Trends in theology and exegesis are likewise responsible for the fifteenthcentury decline of paradise on maps. Scafi acknowledges that scientific and cartographic advances in the “Age of Discovery” aroused skepticism about the physical reality of Eden. However, he credits shifting theological views rather REVIEWS 271 than revolutions in science and exploration as the primary cause of Eden’s gradual disappearance from mappae mundi. These arguments will be familiar to readers of Scafi’s 1999 essay, “Mapping Eden: Cartographies of the Earthly Paradise,” in the edited volume Mappings. Those who were tantalized by the earlier work will find reasons for delight and disappointment in this extended treatment of the same topic. Chief among the delights are the illustrations. The medieval mappae mundi that Scafi examines are reproduced in glorious color plates in the center of the book. Large blackand -white versions, printed with exceptional clarity, appear throughout the chapters. Valuable diagrams accompany over forty of these maps and render them accessible to contemporary Anglophone scholars. Another great strength of the book is that medieval conceptual frameworks, rather than anachronistic categories, dictate the parameters of the discussion. Scafi’s analysis of mappae mundi conforms to medieval criteria for this genre rather than modern expectations of what constitutes an accurate world map. In order to distinguish between the spatial and temporal aspects...