Gervase of Ebstorf ('' fl.'' 1234-1240) is best known as the author of the Ebstorf Map, a medieval

mappa mundi A ''mappa mundi'' (Latin ; plural = ''mappae mundi''; french: mappemonde; enm, mappemond) is any medieval European map of the world. Such maps range in size and complexity from simple schematic maps or less across to elaborate wall maps, th ...

created between 1234 and 1240. He may or may not be the same man as

Gervase of Tilbury Gervase of Tilbury ( la, Gervasius Tilberiensis; 1150–1220) was an English canon lawyer, statesman and cleric. He enjoyed the favour of Henry II of England and later of Henry's grandson, Emperor Otto IV, for whom he wrote his best known work, ...

, author of the ''

Otia Imperialia ''Otia Imperialia'' ("Recreation for an Emperor") is an early 13th-century encyclopedic work, the best known work of Gervase of Tilbury. It is an example of speculum literature. Also known as the "Book of Marvels", it primarily concerns the three ...

'', "Recreation for an Emperor", written for Emperor

Otto IV Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218. Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 119 ...

. The connection between

and Gervase of Ebstorf can "only remain hypothetical"; the arguments for

being the mapmaker are based on the name Gervase, which was an uncommon name in Northern Germany at the time, and on some similarities between the world view of the mapmaker and of Gervase of Tilbury.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gervase Of Ebstorf 13th-century Latin writers German cartographers