From Vínland to Jerusalem in the Beatus Galaxy: The Impact of Maps on the European Mentality in the 11th Century

From c. 500 to 1000 AD the Atlantic Ocean was ex- plored further and further to the west, all the way to Vínland. But why did the Norse expansion lose en- ergy in the 11th century at the same time as European attention was directed to Jerusalem? The explana- tion given in this article is that the tipping point was a shift from a world view based on “horizontal see- ing” through a network of places to a “vertical see- ing” through maps.