Cities of God?

Medieval Urban Forms and Their Christian Symbolism

Author(s): Keith D. Lilley
Source: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sep.,
2004), pp. 296-313
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
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Cities of God? Medieval urban formsand
theirChristiansymbolism
Keith D Lilley
Situatedin thecontextof recentgeographicalengagementswith'landscape',this
paper combines'morphological'and 'iconographic'landscape interpretations to
examinehow urbanformswere perceivedin late medievalEurope.To date,
morphologicalstudieshave mapped themedievalcityeitherby classifying urban
layoutsaccordingto particulartypes,or by analysingplan formsof particulartowns
and citiesto revealtheirspatialevolution.This paper outlinesa thirdway, an
'iconographic'approach,whichshows how urbanformsin theMiddle Ages conveyed
Christiansymbolism.Threesuch 'mappings'explorethisthesis:thefirstuses textual
and visual representationswhichshow thatthecitywas understoodas a scaled-down
world- a microcosm- linkingcityand cosmos in themedievalmind;thesecond
'mapping'develops thisthemefurther and suggeststhaturbanlandscapeswere
inscribedwithsymbolicformthroughtheirlayouton theground;while thethird
looks at how Christiansymbolismof urbanformswas performedthroughtheurban
landscapein perennialreligiousprocessions.Each of these'mappings'pointsto the
symbolic,mysticalsignificance urbanformhad in theMiddle Ages,based on religious
faith,and theythusoffera deepened appreciationof how urbanlandscapeswere
represented, constructedand experiencedat thetime.

key words urbanmorphology medievalEurope landscape iconography

SchoolofGeography, BelfastBT71NN
Queen's University,
email:k.lilley@qub.ac.uk

revised manuscriptreceived 12 November 2003

have hardlyaffectedstudiesof urban formin geo-

Introduction
graphyand, with few exceptions,therehas been
This paper considershow those of Christianfaith littleengagementin Anglophoneurbanmorphology
understoodurbanformssymbolically in latermedi- with currenttheoreticalshiftsin how landscapes
eval Europe,specifically
fromtheninthtothefifteenthmay be interpreted iconographically,symbolically.
century.In so doing, the paper offersa different The second is that,despite a greatdeal of interest
approach to mapping medieval urban landscapes in landscape iconography,historicaland cultural
to thatprevalentin currentstudies of urban form, geographershave tendedto focusmoreon thoseof
in the field of urban morphology.Outlined here later periods, particularlyof the nineteenthand
are medieval 'mappings'of the citythatreveal the twentiethcenturies,and have by and large over-
symbolic,Christiansignificanceof urbanforms,an looked landscapes of the Middle Ages. To address
iconographywhichin themedievalmindinscribed both concernsthis paper uses medieval - Latin
the cityand its landscape with religiousmeaning. Christian- interpretations of urban form as a
In a broader context,this paper seeks to address meansoftryingto recognizehow urbanlandscapes
two issues raised by recentlandscape studies in were symbolicallyrepresented,constructedand
human geography.The firstis that recentepiste- experiencedin the Middle Ages. It does so by
mological challenges laid down by the so-called looking at how the city stood as a 'map' of
'culturalturn' in arts and humanitiesdisciplines Christianbeliefand meaning.
TransInstBr GeogrNS 29 296-313 2004
ISSN 0020-2754? Royal GeographicalSociety(withThe Instituteof BritishGeographers)2004

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CitiesofGod? 297
From an empirical and methodologicalview-
'Mapping' urban morphologies
point,some historianshave raised questionsabout
Mapping medieval urban landscapes morpholo- using post-medieval cartographicsources as a
gically is a long geographicaltradition,deriving basis forrevealingthe evolvingformsof medieval
largely,but by no means exclusively,fromEuro- urban landscapes (see especially Keene 1985).
pean historicaland geographical studies of the However, archaeological excavations in urban
earlyto mid twentieth centuryofsettlement patterns areas have shown that medieval plot and street
and forms (Siedlungsgeographie) (Whitehand1981 patternscan, and indeed do, surviveforverylong
1992).These studies,of the evolutionof particular periods of timein the urbanlandscape, sometimes
settlements or regionalsurveysofsettlement types, for over a thousand years, even in places where
attemptedto reveal the presence and persistence redevelopmentpressure on urban propertyhas
of medieval urban forms in the landscapes of been high (Ottaway 1992, 173). To address these
Europe's modern towns and cities. For UK geo- empirical concerns,'morphogenetic'urban mor-
graphymuch of this work was 'imported'via the phologistsmapping medieval urban landscapes -
activitiesof R E Dickinson and latterlyM R G myselfincluded- have dealt more and morewith
Conzen, in the middle years of the last century historical(i.e. medieval) material,integratingthe
(Dickinson1934 1945 1951;Conzen 1960 1962 1968). resultsofexcavationworkand documentaryanaly-
As Whitehand (1981) has shown, their two ap- ses with later, cartographicallyderived maps of
proacheswerequitedifferent, withDickinsonadopt- urban form,continuallyseeking to improve and
ing a taxonomicmethodof classifyingthe layouts revise our approach and make our methodsmuch
of medievaltownsand citiesaccordingto thechar- more rigorous(see Conzen 1968; Baker and Slater
acteristicsof theirstreetlayout,and Conzen pre- 1992; Lilley 2000a). During the last few decades,
ferringinstead to recognizethatfossilizedwithin then,a key concernwithinurban morphologyhas
the compositeformsof European towns and cities been the creationof more 'accurate'maps of medi-
were the medieval stages of evolution,theirmedi- eval urban landscapes in order to demonstrate
eval morphogenesis.It is this latter,'Conzenian' with more confidencewhat physicalchanges had
approach (Whitehandand Larkham1992,5-8, 10- takenplace in townsand citiesin theMiddle Ages
11) thathas since held dominancein the mapping and thusensurethatresearchfindingswould meet
ofmedievalurbanlandscapesin Anglophonehuman more withthe approval of those who were scepti-
geography(Simms 1979; Slater1987; Lilley2000a), cal about this kind of work. However, these
providinghistoricalgeographers,urban archaeo- improvementsin morphogenetictechniqueshave
logistsand medieval historianswithopportunities so farlargelyescaped theoreticaland epistemologi-
to piece togetherwhaturbanlandscapes physically cal reflection.
lookedlike,on theground,and how and whenthey To me, fromhaving worked for a number of
were formedand transformed duringthe Middle yearson mappingmorphologiesofmedievaltowns
Ages (Brooksand Whittington 1977;Bakerand Slater and cities (withinthe morphogenetictraditionof
1992).Forthemostpartthisinvolvesusingnineteenth- 'Conzenian' urban morphology),it has become
centurycartography, particularlylarge-scale(1:500 increasinglyevidentthatthereis a need to reflect
and 1:2500)town-plans,as a basis foranalysingthe more criticallyon the conceptual assumptions
formsofstreets mapsofthediscrete employedin this kind of work,and connectmor-
and plots,creating
morphologicalareas ('plan units') and thenlinking phological mappings of landscape study to
theseexpressionsof thephysicalformof a particu- broader,theorizeddebates in geographyon map-
lar townor citywithdocumentaryand archaeolog- ping and landscape (see Lilley 2000c). The con-
ical evidence to reveal its sequence of medieval ceptual condition of currentAnglophone urban
morphogenesis,and thusperhapsaccountforpar- morphologyis comparableto thatof cartographic
ticularreasons why an urban landscape took the historypriorto the so-called 'culturalturn'of the
particularformthatit did (Slater1987 1996; Lilley 1980s and 1990s, a time of rising post-structural
1999 2000b). While intrinsically very revealingof criticismin humangeographyin general(see Philo
the otherwiseratherhidden spatial historiesof 2000).ThroughtheworkofHarley(1988 19891992)
medieval urban landscapes,this kind of 'morpho- in particular,theoreticallydriven questions were
genetic'mappingof medievaltownsand citieshas being voiced by geographersover the politics of
facedempiricaland theoreticalcriticisms. mappingand map-making,and criticisms began to

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298 KeithD Lilley
be made of the largelyunreflective(in Harley's in which the editors,in theirintroductory essay
view) practicesof cartographersand cartographic (Daniels and Cosgrove 1988, 3-4), set out a con-
historians.Harley (1992,231) was arguingthatfor ceptualizationof 'landscape' based on iconography
too long 'epistemictime'had stood stillin the 'his- and iconology, drawingupon the thinkingof Erwin
toryof cartography'and thatcartographers' claims Panofsky(1970), which in turnwas influencedby
that theirswas a 'progressivescience', providing ErnstCassirer's (1953 1955) Philosophy of symbolic
ever more accurateand truthfuldepictionsof the form.For Cassirer,'symbolicform''is a condition
earth'ssurface,had been accepted largelyuncriti- of the knowledge of meaning or of the human
cally. In his mind there was a need to seek an expressionofmeaning'(1953,53) wherebymaterial
'alternativeepistemology,rooted in social theory forms(such as landscapes) are earthlyrealizations
ratherthan scientificpositivism',and in enlisting of mythicalforms (such as cosmologies). Using
the work of Derrida and Foucault he sought to Panofskyand Cassireras theirguide, Daniels and
'deconstructthe map' (Harley 1992, 232). While Cosgrove suggest that interpreting iconographic-
Harley may have somewhat over-statedhis case ally requiresus 'to probe meaningin a workof art
(Belyea 1992;Andrews2001),the challengethathe by setting it in its historical context and, in
laid beforecartographichistoryis, I think,much particular,to analyse the ideas implicatedin its
the same as thatwhich now lies beforeus in UK imagery'(1988,2). Panofsky(1957) did this in his
urban morphology:to 'read our maps foralternat- study of medieval religious architecture,Gothic
ive and sometimescompetingdiscourses' (Harley architecture and Scholasticism, in which he read the
1992,247). Thus morphologicalmaps of medieval 'structure'of contemporaryScholasticthoughtin
urban landscapes mightbe read more reflectively, the materialstructuresof FrenchGothicbuildings
and critically,to take into account that they are - reading in one the meaningsof the other.Since
afterall subjectivemappingsthatreflect, at least in an understandingof 'form'is the basis forinquiry
part,the ideas and values of those who produce in both morphologicaland iconographic study,
them(see Lilley2000a 2000c). thereis potentialto align - conceptually- urban
There is also the matter,as some have argued, morphology with the landscape iconography
thatthestudiesof urbanlandscapes by urbanmor- approach currentlyfavoured among geographers
phologistsdo not engage sufficiently with recent (see Lilley 2000c, 377-81). It is, after all, an
work done by culturalgeographersand otherson approach that also has particularsuitabilityfor
the contestedand contextualnatureof 'landscape', studyingmedieval urban forms,for the Middle
and 'do not adequately reflectthe varietyof ap- Ages was a period when life was rooted in a
proaches to the study of the urban landscape Christianview of theworld,where'materialthings
currentlyon offer'(Driver 1995, 769-70). Urban signified spiritual things, even God himself'
morphologists,in the UK at least, have indeed (Ladner 1979,226).
takena different conceptualtackin theirapproach Iconographyderivesfrominterpreting themean-
to landscapes comparedwith those historicaland ings and symbolismof Christianart and architect-
culturalgeographerswhose work has opened up ure (see Didron 1965;Grabar1968). In interpreting
an 'iconographyof landscape'; yet thereis some the religiousmeaningof medieval buildings,par-
commongroundbetweenthem- a mutualstudyof ticularlychurchesand cathedrals,theirarchitecture
form. is studied in the same way that medieval Chris-
tiansread Holy Scripture.Male makes thispointin
Landscape iconographies and 'symbolic his Religiousart in France,where in his discussion
of theiconographyofGothicarchitecture he draws
form'
upon thecontemporary writingsofWilliamDuran-
For the last decade or so, historicaland cultural dus, Bishop of Mende, who in the laterthirteenth
geographershave increasinglyemployed 'icono- centurycommentedon the different ways thatthe
graphy'to understandhow landscapes conveyand word 'Jerusalem'can be interpreted:
constructculturalmeaning,particularlyin studies in thehistoricalsense Jerusalemis thetownin Palestine
of representedlandscapes (Duncan and Ley 1995; wherepilgrims go; in theallegoricalsense,itis theChurch
Seymour2000). Many are inspiredby a volume of Militant;in the tropologicalsense it is the Christian
papers broughttogetherby Cosgrove and Daniels soul; and in the sense anagogical it is the Heavenly
(1988) under the title,The iconographyoflandscape, Jerusalem, theheavenlyhome.(Male 1984,145)

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CitiesofGod? 299
Male uses this exegetical schema to read the recentlyset out by historicaland culturalgeogra-
Christianmeaningsof religiousarchitectural forms phers,it also beginsto revealsome of theChristian
because this was how art and architecturewere meaningsand symbolismthaturbanformshad for
understoodin theMiddle Ages. Thus,AbbotSuger thoselivingin theMiddle Ages.
of St Denis, in describingthebuildingof theabbey Medieval landscape iconographies have been
church in the middle decades of the twelfth altogetherabsentfromUK geography,and despite
century,reflectedon his 'delightin the beauty of so many studies of landscape iconography, geogra-
the house of God', and how through'transferring phersrarelyseem to deal withtheirpossible Chris-
thatwhichis materialto thatwhich is immaterial' tianmeanings.Geographerswho have worked on
he felt'transported fromthisinferiorto thathigher the religious meaning and symbolismof urban
world in an anagogical manner' (Suger cited in formshave done so mainlyin non-Europeancon-
Panofsky1979,63-5). For ThomasAquinas,writing texts,notablyWheatley(1971 1983; Wheatleyand
also in thelate 1200sin his SummaTheologica, these See 1978) in the case of cities in south and east
different readingsof Scripturecould be simplified Asia, as well as Duncan (1990 1993) and Nitz
into just two: the 'literal sense' (historical, (1992), while medieval cities have instead been
etiological and analogical) and 'mystical sense' studied iconographicallyby art and architectural
(moral or tropological,anagogical and allegorical) historians,some of whom have dealt withparticu-
(Brown 1999, 22-4). To contemporaries,the lar 'images of urban experience' (Frugoni 1991),
religiousarchitecture of theMiddle Ages conveyed and others with the meanings of buildings and
both literal and mysticalmeanings (Wallis 1973, theirurbancontexts(see Wittkower1956;Krauthe-
224-31), allowing 'the divine mysteriesto be imer1983). Whatthesestudiescollectivelydemon-
conveyedto an unculturedpeople' (Aquinas cited strateis thatforvarious culturesaround theworld
in Eco 1988,156). urban landscapes have long held symbolicmean-
With Christianarchitecture, then,'all formsare ings, and that forms convey and constructthis
endowed with spirit'(Male 1984,16), but what of symbolism.Interpreting such symbolismrequires
the medieval urban landscape? Was it also being lookingat theculturalvalues and beliefsystemsof
read 'literally'and 'mystically'as buildingswere? thosesocietiesto whichthecitiesbelonged,and for
Certainly,towns like religiousbuildingshad their the Middle Ages, forLatin ChristianEurope, this
founders,their'patrons',whilein some cases archi- means bringing'imagined' and 'material' urban
tectsare knownto have designedtownsas well as landscapes into dialogue with the thinkingthat
cathedrals(see Friedman 1988). So the potential underpinnedthem,takinga leaf out of Panofsky's
does existforreadingbuiltformslike architectural book,as it were,and seeingthecitywithmedieval,
forms,in a mysticaland literalsense. Indeed,writ- Christianeyes. Whatfollowsis such a remapping of
ing in the middle part of the thirteenthcentury the medieval city,addressingsome of the theoreti-
in Cologne in his Questiones on Aristotle's cal issues outlinedabove. It is not meant to sup-
Nicomachean ethics,theScholastictheologianAlbert plant conventionalmorphologicalmappings but
theGreatdescribesthecity'materially'as 'a collec- rathersimplyput on offeran iconographyofmedi-
tion of humans and a set of buildings' (cited in eval urban landscapes that tries to connect the
McGrade et al. 2001, 107). Clearly this is the city 'medieval' and the 'modern'imagination.
seen in the literal sense - a physical city. The Three iconographic'mappings' of the medieval
remainderof thispaper is concernedwithhow the city are discussed here, interpretingmedieval
medieval citywas understoodin a mysticalsense, urbanlandscapes in a 'mysticalsense' (ofAquinas'
interpreting urban landscapes throughtheir'sym- scheme).The firstshows how urbanformwas used
bolic form'. Rather than mapping the medieval in contemporary textualand visual imagesto make
urbanlandscape in its literalsense,morphogeneti- the citya microcosmsymbolicof the wider Chris-
cally, as urban morphologistshave done previ- tiancosmos;thesecond examineshow,throughthe
ously,hereI attemptto show that,in themedieval use of sacred geometryin design and planning,
mind, urban landscapes were symbolic,and that this cosmic symbolism was also materially
mysticalmeaningsofthecitywere constructedand expressedin thelayoutand physicalformofmedi-
conveyedthroughitsform.Not onlydoes thisthen eval urban landscapes; while the third'mapping'
help to align urban morphology- the study of looks at how these same symbolic forms were
urban form- with approaches to landscape more embodied by being tracedout in performancesof

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300
religiousprocessionsthroughtheurbanlandscape.
All threeof these 'mappings'not only pointto the
symbolicsignificanceofmedievalurbanforms,but
reveal a sharedChristiansymbolismin how urban
landscapes were represented,constructed and
experiencedduringthelaterMiddle Ages.
The microcosmiccity:textand image
There are, as Hyde (1966) recognized,few textual
descriptionsof cities survivingfromthe Middle
Ages, but there are two that help to give some
insight on the mystical symbolism that urban
formshad in the medieval mind.The firstof these
comes fromItalyand is a descriptionof Padua of
c.1318.Writtenby a local judge,Giovannida Nono,
it 'comes in the formof a vision givenby an angel
to comfortEgidius,the defeatedlegendarykingof
ancientPadua' (Dean 2000,17). This is his vision:
I asked the angel in whatformthe cityof Padua would
be built.He told me: 'The finewall of the citybuiltby
yourPaduanswill . . . curveroundfora milelikea horse-
shoe ... and thewateroftheBacchiglioneand "Tusena"
riverswill flow around it ... The Paduans will place
fourroyalgatesin thewall . . .' (citedin Dean 2000,17)
And so he goes on, describing each of these in turn
and their attributes.The city's four gates were each
placed at cardinal points, as Scripturerelates in
descriptionsof the holyJerusalem(e.g. Ezekiel 48:
16-35; Revelation21: 13). Giovanni's description
thus reveals something of the imagined Christian
significance of Padua's urban form,as seen by one
of its citizens. It places emphasis on the outline of
the city's walls and the locations of the gates.
According to the passage, these were ordained
from on high, by an angel. They were, then,
divinely sanctioned: the city's creation - through
its symbolic form- connected it with the Creator of
all things, God Himself.
The second description comes from England,
from c.1195. Written by a local monk called Lucian
for the purposes of a sermon, it praises his city of
Chester (see Hyde 1966, 325). Lucian's description
again provides somewhat rare access to the
thoughts of how urban form was symbolically
understood in the medieval mind. Lucian writes
that the city has 'four gates to the four winds', that
thereare also two excellentstraightstreetsin the form
of the blessed Cross, whichthroughtheirmeetingand
crossingthemselves,thenmake fourout of two, their
heads ending in fourgates ... [and] in the middle of
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KeithD Lilley
thecity,in a positionequal forall, [God] willedthereto
be a marketfor the sale of goods ... Now if anyone
standingin the middle of the marketturnshis face to
the East, accordingto the positionsof theChurches,he
findsJohnthe forerunner of the lord to the East, Peter
the Apostle to the West, Werburghthe Virginto the
North,and ArchangelMichael to the south.Nothingis
more true than that Scripture,'I have set watchmen
upon thy walls, 0 Jerusalem'[Isaiah 62: 6].... So
behold our city,as it was predicted,entrustedto the
holyguardiansas it were in fourfoldmanner.Fromthe
East the mercyof the forerunner of the Lord supports
it, from the West the power of the doorkeeper of
Heaven, to theNorththewatchfulbeautyof thevirgin,
and to theSouththe wonderfulsplendourof the angel.
(Citedin Palliser1980,6-7)
Here again Lucian invokes the role of God's
interventionin the layout of the city,in prescribing
its form of streets and walls and gates, in imitation
of the celestial city itself, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and imagining it thus. Through his allegorical,
mystical reading of Chester's twelfth-century
urban landscape, Lucian reveals symbolic
meanings of the city's form,as da Nono had done
in describing Padua. Both show that the shape of a
town or city conveyed Christian symbolism,
connecting the earthly and heavenly worlds;
indeed the 'city' represented a microcosm of the
wider 'cosmos' - each being divinely ordained and
ordered. This microcosmicism is evident also in
surviving visual representations of medieval cities.
With its stylized circle of walls and opposing
gates, images of Jerusalem represented the city as a
scaled-down cosmos, the wider Christian world
(Kuhnel 1998, xxiv). In a ninth-centuryCarolingian
depiction of the heavenly Jerusalem, Christ as the
Lamb of God is shown in the centre of the celestial
city, protected by a circle of walls (12 concentric
rings representing the disciples of Christ) and four
gates (for the evangelists) at each cardinal point
(Frugoni 1991, 21-2). Symbolically, Jerusalem rep-
resented the history of the world, its past, present
and future, and its cardinal-orientated circular
form signified the cosmic order (Kuhnel 1998,
xxiii). This same symbolic form (and divine history
and hierarchy) is repeated in mappaemundisuch as
the Ebstorf map of the thirteenth century, where
the world is superimposed upon the body of
Christ, with Jerusalem at his navel - the axis mundi
- and orientated to the four cardinal points, cross-
shaped (Woodward 1987; Obrist 1997). Of course, a
circular-shaped heavenly Jerusalem did not tally
with Scripture. Revelation (21: 16) clearly states the
CitiesofGod?
city lies 'four-square',so in some images of the
celestialcityit is shown as such (see Brieger1967).
One ninth-century apocalypse manuscripthas an
image of the angel showingthe 'new Jerusalem'to
St Johnin which fourof the towersin the wall of
the circular-shapedcityare differently colouredso
as to markout thecityas a square,squaringthecir-
cle as it were (Frugoni 1991, 22-3). Earthlycities
were also widelyrepresentedin medieval imagery
as a circle of walls and a cross of streets.For
instance,images of Bristol(c.1480) and Talamone
(c.1306) both show circular forms,cross-shaped
streetsand opposing gateways (see Ralph 1986;
Harvey 1987),and in thisway imitatedepictionsof
the heavenlyand earthlyJerusalem(see Laveden
1954),whilethesame motifsappear on cityseals as
well as on itinerarymaps and portolancharts(see
Campbell 1987;Harvey1987).
The textual descriptionsand visual images of
Jerusalemand othercitiesbothrevealhow cityand
cosmos were symbolicallyconnectedin the medi-
eval mind.Theirshared forms- the circleand the
square - pointingto shared meanings. That the
microcosmiccitywas a pervasive motifin medi-
eval Christianthinkinghas long been recognized
(see Allers1944),but onlyrelativelyrecentlyhas it
received much specificattention,particularlyby
Dutton (1983, 80), who has demonstratedhow
Plato's idea of thecity-stateas sketchedin thepro-
logue to the Timaeuscame to be transmitted subse-
quentlythroughmedieval texts,culminatingwith
the 'fairly widespread circulation of the idea
among learned men generally linked with [the
School of] Chartres'in the twelfthcentury,men
such as Williamof Conches and Alan of Lille. This
process was long and protracted,as Dutton (1983,
83, 84) shows, and hinged on Latin glosses and
commentaries based on a translationofthe Timaeus
by Calcidius, writingin the fourthcentury,who
had 'followedthelead of Plato in employingterms
derivedfroma city-state to describethe partsand
functionsof the [human] body', drawing 'a com-
parisonbetweenthe cosmos and the humanbody,
since, of course, the parts of man [sic] follow the
arrangement of the cosmicbody'. It is thisschema
that was adopted and adapted subsequently
throughthe Middle Ages, providinga conceptual
link in the Christianmind between city and the
cosmos.Some of themoreexplicitexamplesof this
come fromthe twelfthcenturyin particular,a time
when European urban lifewas expandingrapidly
(Lilley 2002), and a time too when the Platonic
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301
inheritance, with its emphasis on the relationship
between the megacosmus and microcosmus, was
reaching its influential height in Christian thought
(see Gregory 1988).
For William of Conches, writing in the 1120s and
1130s in his gloss on Macrobius' Commentaryon the
dreamofScipio - a neoplatonic discussion on Plato's
and Cicero's Republics - the city 'imitated the
divine arrangement' of the human body:
The head holds the highestplace ... [and thus]just as
wisdom is located in the head and oversees the
remainingmembersof the body, so the senatorsbeing
in the highestplace, that is in the citadel of the city,
overseethe lowerclasses and regulatetheirmovements
and actions. Under the head are hands which are
disposed to act and the heart where the abode of
courage is located; so under men fromthe senatorial
orderare soldierswho are disposed to endurehardship
and are courageous in defence of the state. The
kidneys,in whichhuman desire flourishes,are located
under the heart and so under the soldiers are found
confectioners,cobblers,skinnersand other craftsmen.
At the remotestpart of the body feet are found,so
outsidethewalls on theoutskirts of thecityare farmers
to cultivatethefields.(Cited in Dutton1983,91)
In the twelfth century, there was, then, in natural
philosophy a likeness deduced between the world,
the city and the human body - a likeness that
pointed to the same hand in their creation (cf.
Eliade 1959, 165, 172-9). Others, too, followed this
line of thinking, including Bernard Silvester, Alan
of Lille and Thierry of Chartres (Stock 1972;
Sheridan 1980; Haring 1955), while the theme
recurs in twelfth-centuryanonymous glosses on
the Timaeus, including one in which 'the city is
called a world ... having as its senate an order of
superior spirits, as soldiers ministering spirits, and
as dwellers on the outskirts of man' (cited in
Dutton 1983, 105). Such conceptions of the city-
cosmos were present also in the political
philosophy of the period, most notably in John of
Salisbury's Policraticus, where he espouses an
idealized city-republic 'arranged according to its
resemblance with nature' and where 'civil life
should imitate nature' (cited in Nederman 1990,
127). 'Ideal' cities were not confined to the works
of the twelfth-centuryneoplatonists either, for they
recur later, in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, inspired by a model provided by
Aristotle's Politics, as is clear from the translations
and commentaries, such as those by Thomas
Aquinas (d'Entreves 1970; Dunbabin 1982), who
302 KeithD Lilley
philosophically'accepts essentiallythe universeof leftbehind,and in part throughthe textsused to
Aristotle' (Gilson 1956, 175), and also Guido explain and teach methods of drawing and sur-
Vernaniof Rimini,whose earlyfourteenth-centuryveying.In both,geometryis key,and it is through
commentary on thePoliticswas written, it has been geometrythat medieval urban landscapes were
argued, for a local mercantileelite (Dunbabin inscribedmateriallywithsymbolicformand myst-
1988). In all these works, the city reflected ical meaning.
universal order,both literallyand mystically:'in Writtenevidence thatgeometricalknowledgeis
essence,it was a way of connectingthe worlds in being used in medieval urban planning is to be
whichman [sic]lives' (Dutton1983,116). found in texts known as 'practical geometries',
Through its form, then, the city was being practicageometriae. Both theoristsand practitioners
thought of microcosmicallyby medieval Chris- ofgeometryproducedthesein thetwelfthand thir-
tians,connectingsymbolicallythe earthly(human) teenthcenturiesfordidacticpurposes (forinstance,
body with the heavenly (cosmic) 'body'. As an Hugh of St Victor,Leonardo Fibonacciand Villard
idea, the microcosmic 'city' circulated widely de Honnecourt)(Homann 1991; Victor1979). One
around Europe in the later Middle Ages, among such text,of1193(anonymouslywrittenbut known
scholarsand clergymen, and citizensand nobles of by theincipitartiscuiuslibet consummatio, and origin-
those very cities where much of this knowledge atingfromnorthernFrance),containsa procedure
was being produced and consumed, particularly 'to inferthe number of houses in a round city'
but by no means exclusively in the university using geometry,for example (Victor 1979, 219).
towns and cathedral cities where teaching and This same textalso gives instruction on more gen-
learning took place (see Southern 1995). Repre- eral surveyingproblems:how to findthesurfaceof
sentedin contemporary textualand visual images, a slope-sided field; how to count the numberof
and reflecting the mysticalmeaningsurban forms small rectanglesin a known surface;and how to
had in Christian thinking, thisimagined'city-cosmos' countthe numberof houses to be obtainedfroma
formeda linkbetweenheavenand earth,a crossing known surface,all of which were applicable to
place offeringthe 'possibilityof transcendence' urban planning (Victor 1979, 205, 207, 213). The
(Eliade 1959,26, 37, 63). practicaluse of geometryto lay out new urban
landscapes is thus clear. There is evidence thatit
was used to design them,too. A plan of Talamone
Sacred geometries: design and planning (1306) in Italy is a case in point,since it seems to
Thinkingabout mysticalmeaningsof urban forms have been drawnto facilitatethe foundationof the
is one thing,but were theyalso beingput to use in new town (Harvey 1987,491), while Roger Bacon
theformation ofmedievaltownsand cities,in their in his Communia mathematica of the end of the thir-
designand planning?Comparedwithlaterperiods, teenthcenturynoted thatone of the uses of prac-
relativelylittleis recordedof theculturalprocesses tical geometrywas 'to draw cities' (in figuracione
thatformedurban landscapes in the Middle Ages, civitatum)(cited in Steele 1940, 43). But geometry
but specialistindividualswho measured and sur- not only had practicalpurposes in creatingurban
veyed new urban landscapes are mentionedocca- landscapes - it had also symbolicmeaning. The
sionally in contemporarysources. In the twelfth circleand square were used to representcityand
and thirteenth centuriescertaintown councils in cosmos, fused togetherin images of the heavenly
Flandersand Italy employedmensores (measurers, Jerusalemand the wider world (see above). Archi-
surveyors),for example (de Smet 1949; Schulz tectsmeanwhilewere arranging'Gothic'cathedrals
1978), while an account of the laying out of the of medieval Europe according to geometrical
town defencesof Ardres in c.1200 recordsSimon designs in orderto conveymysticalmeaning(see
the Dyker,'so learnedin geometricalwork,pacing Lesser 1957;Wallis 1973; Hiscock 2000),as well as
with rod in hand' (cited in Frayling1995, 64). If designingnew towns (see Friedman1988). While
urbanlandscapes werebeingdeliberatelyinscribed in the period fromthe ninthto the thirteenth cent-
with symbolism, most likely it would have uries,God Himself- artifex - was widely
principalis
occurredthroughtheactivitiesof such individuals, depictedas a geometer,compass in hand, fashion-
shadowythoughtheyare. The practicesand know- ing and shapingthecosmosto His designas would
ledge of these mensores is evidentin part through a 'trainedarchitect' witha city,as PhiloofAlexander
the physicallayouts of the urban landscapes they had made clearin his observationthat

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CitiesofGod? 303
When a city is being founded to satisfythe soaringthe city) (see Palliser 1980; Ralph 1986). Mean-
ambitionof some king ... therecomes forwardnow while, urban streetswere physicallybeing made
and again some trainedarchitectwho ... firstsketches
straight,in Florence,for example,with regard to
in his own mind well nighall the partsof the citythat
civic improvementscarriedout therein the 1280s
is to be wroughtout ... and like a good craftsmanhe
and 1290s 'to enhance decorum' (Friedman1988,
begins to build the cityof stones and timber,keeping
his eye upon his patternand makingthe visible and
207). More generally,throughoutEurope at this
time, many new urban landscapes - though of
tangibleobjectscorrespondin each case to the incorp-
oreal ideas. Just such must be our thoughtsabout course not all - were being created with highly
God. We must suppose that,when He was minded to regular,indeed sometimesorthogonal,layouts of
foundthe one greatcity,He conceivedbeforehandthe streetsand plots,evidentin some of the 'bastide'
new townsof south-westFrance,such as Grenade-
model of its parts,and thatout of these... He brought
to completiona world discernibleonly by the mind, sur-Garonne,Monpazier and Vianne (see Divorne
and then,withthatfora pattern,the world whichour et al. 1985; Lauretet al. 1988; Randolph 1995),and
sense can perceive.(Citedin Friedman1974,425) also in theFlorentine'new towns'in Italy(Guidoni
There is no doubt, then,thatin the Middle Ages 1970; Friedman 1988). Some of these new towns
geometrywas seen to be symbolic,but was it also were arrangedaesthetically, theirstreetsand plots
being used to inscribe urban landscapes with set out to harmoniousproportions,as with Gren-
mysticalmeanings?It would seem so, ifthelayouts ade (see Bucher 1972). Terranuova,a new town
of urban landscapes are examined, and if the founded in the Florentinecity-republicin 1337,
significanceof the geometriesthat made them is was laid out with a proportionedquadrate-plan
also considered. derived froma circle divided into chords (Fried-
During the twelfthand more particularlythe man 1988,129), its geometricaldesign thus imitat-
thirteenth centuries,therewas a generalstraighten- ing therepresentedformof theheavenlyJerusalem
ing up of urbanlayouts,evidentin streetand plot (see above). The contemporaneousplan of thenew
patterns,paralleled it seems by a straightening town of Talamone likewise combined circle with
in layouts of religiousbuildings (Bulmer-Thomas square (see Harvey 1987,figure20.27). These per-
1979; Lilley 1998). While this change is probably fectlyformedgeometricalurbanlandscapes served
connectedto usingbettersurveyingtechniquesand no real pragmatic purpose (cf. Boerefijn2000).
instruments (as witnessedby thepracticageometriae Insteadtheyindicatea mystical,symbolicintention
texts),it also has to do with the aestheticbeauty on thepartoftheirdesignersand planners.
associatedwithharmony,proportionand order;an Secondly,thesymbolismofgeometrywas physi-
aestheticsof the materialworld that was seen to cally writteninto the formsof urban landscapes
reflectGod's 'immaterial'beauty (Eco 1986). Geo- throughthe practicesthatwere creatingthem;not
metricalformswere more beautifuland harmoni- least throughthe use of those same instruments
ous in themselvesaccording to the aestheticsof that God had Himselfused to fashionand shape
Thomas Aquinas and otherssuch as Alexanderof theworld at large. 'The scienceof lines,angles and
Hales (Eco 1988). There was symbolicmeaningin figures',wrote Robert Grossetestein his Praxis
having straightlines. Thus in likeningscriptural geometriae, 'serves to explain to us the verynature
study to constructing a new building (a recurrent of physicalthings,of the universeas a whole,and
architecturalmetaphor in medieval exegesis), of each part of it' (cited in Callus 1955,26). At a
Hugh ofSt Victornotedin his Didascaliconthat'the basic level, cords were needed to lay out streets
tautcord shows thepath of the truefaith'(citedin and plots,as is recordedin the case of surveying
Taylor 1961, 141-2). The Bible itself taught the thenew townofBaa nearBordeauxin 1287(Trabut
faithfulto 'make the crooked places straight' Cussac 1961,142-3);cordsthatto Hugh ofSt Victor
(Isaiah 41: 4, 45: 2) and to 'make straightin the had revealed 'the path of the truefaith'.Compass
deserta highwayforour God' (Isaiah 41: 3), while or dividerswould be needed to drafta plan of a
we have already noted Lucian's remarkson the new town,as withTalamone again, to traceout its
straightnessof Chester's streetsand their cross- circle of walls on parchment,or to establish the
shape (correcting, in his mind,theiractual imper- complexgeometricaldesignofTerranuova.Biblical
fections),and the cross-plan of Bristol's streets passages gave cosmic significanceto the shape
shown on the 'map' of 1480 (probablyan image drawn by the compass (Proverbs8: 27), as well as
made to convey the imaginedmythicaloriginsof measuring rods and reeds used to fashion the

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304
orderlyarrangementof the earthlyand heavenly
Jerusalem(Ezekiel 40: 3-5; 43: 1-17; Revelation21:
15-17). Thus Lambert,the parish priestof Ardres,
recalls Simon the Dyker laying out 'with rod in
hand' the town defencesin c.1200, 'not so much
withthatactual rod as withthe spiritualrod of his
mind, the work which in imagination he had
already conceived' (cited in Frayling 1995, 64).
Othermore sophisticatedinstruments, particularly
the quadrantand the astrolabe,helped to measure
distancesaccuratelyover open ground,necessary
forsurveyingwork,while its symbolicsignificance
lay in thefactthattheastrolabeitselfis round,like
the created world, and through its astrological
functionsand astronomicaluses made this wider
world observableand measurable(see Kiely 1947).
That these instrumentswere known and used is
revealed in practicalgeometries,such as Hugh of
St Victor's,which explained the astrolabe's uses
in planimetry, in measuring ground-surfaces
(Homann 1991), and by the artis text,based on
Hugh of St Victor'searlierexposition,which spe-
cificallyconcernsthe application of the astrolabe
'to measurethequantityof a straightline' (citedin
Victor 1979, 115). Surveyorsworked in different
ways. Dominicus de Clavasio, in his practicageo-
metriaeof 1346, notes 'the differencebetween the
geometricand thelay measurer'lies in
thatwhat the lay measurerknows how to measureby
going and dashingaround the sides of a fieldwithhis
rods and cords, the geometricmeasurer will know
standingstillby mentalreflection
or by drawinglines.
(Citedin Victor1979,52)
In c.1220,Leonardo Fibonaccihad noted a similar
distinctionin his practicageometriae(Friedman
1988, 125). Certain,more learned surveyorsthus
perhaps worked with their heads and with
calculations, presumably based on observations
derived from instruments, but while these may
have led to thecreationof different
formsof urban
landscapes (some more sophisticatedin design
than others), the symbolic significanceof the
geometer's instruments was clearly broad,
meaning that newly made urban landscapes of
whatever shapecould be inscribedwith a common,
cosmicsymbolism.
So geometryis notonlyto be foundin thelayout
of medieval urban landscapes but also in their
laying-out,both on the groundand on parchment,
in bothurbandesign and planning.It is surelysig-
nificantthatgeographicallyseparateplaces such as
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KeithD Lilley
Padua and Chester had forms that were being
interpretedsimilarlysymbolically,with reference
to thehand ofGod bothin theirmakingand also in
theirresultantform,and thatsuch ideas were cir-
culatingconcurrently withthe spatial formationof
new urban landscapes. The shared geometrical
formsofbothcityand cosmosnotonlygave mysti-
cal meaningto the materiallayouts of new urban
landscapes,throughtheirgeometric-shaped streets
and plots,so too did the sacred geometryused by
some mensores and architectsin urban design and
planning,imitatingthat used by God in cosmic
designand planning.
Performedlandscapes: embodied
symbolism
On parchment,then,in textsand images, are the
symbolicformsof the medieval city,formsthat
were also laid out on the groundin the layoutsof
new urban landscapes; the materialand the imag-
ined urban landscapes each having shared Chris-
tian symbolismand meaning revealing mystical
connectionsbetweencityand cosmos, the earthly
and heavenlyworlds of medieval Christianity.If
thiswere all, thenthe medieval 'mappings' of the
cityconsideredso farcould simplybe regardedas
justintellectualexercisesthatpreoccupieda literate
and learned minorityof medieval society. The
symbolismof urban formshad wider appreciation
however,and reachedmoregeneralaudiencesthan
just scholarsand clergymen.They enteredevery-
day lifein townsand citiesthroughpeople partici-
patingin processionsthatpunctuatethe Christian
calendar in honour of Christand his saints. The
ritualgeographiesof theseholy processionstraced
throughtheurbanlandscape,and tracedout in the
minds of the participantsthemselves,the mystical
symbolismof urban forms,giving them a wider
circulationwithin medieval society beyond the
confinesof cloisterand court,touchingthe lives of
themany.
Religiousprocessionswere widelyheld in medi-
eval townsand cities,and particularlytowardsthe
laterMiddle Ages are reasonablywell documented
in municipal records as they became more of a
featureof civic festivityand ceremony.In Siena,
for example, the festivaland procession of the
Assumptionof theVirginMary,held fromthe late
twelfthcentury,was a show of corporatedisplay
and civic pride as well as religious devotion,as
Bowsky (1981, 276) notes. The same was true for
CitiesofGod?
other European towns and cities,too (see James
1983; Rubin 1991). The roots of these devotional
processionslay at least in part in earlierChristian
rites.In Jerusalem,Rome and Constantinople,for
example, liturgieswere conducted in urban set-
tings and processions interweaved between
churchesin the townscapeat key timesin theholy
year, both being 'an expression of the religious
faithof Christiansas the "common-sense"founda-
tionof thelifeofthecity'(Baldovin1987,251). The
stationsof Christ's Passion in Jerusalemare still
imitated,placed in urbansettingsin RomanCatho-
lic towns and cities of Europe during Easter for
the Christianfaithfulto performpilgrimagesin
the image of Christ's own journey to the cross
(Sumption1975,93). Such tracesthroughtheurban
landscape no doubt inscribed it with symbolic,
Christianmeaningsto those who were there,but
what is perhaps of more significancehere is how
theseperennialreligiousprocessionstracedout,in
the minds of participants,the mystical,symbolic
formsof cityand cosmos - the micro-and macro-
cosm - connectingthemselves,spirituallyand bod-
ily, to the broader social 'body' of the cityand to
the 'cosmicbody' overall.
The idea thatthecitywas itselfa body had wide
currencyin political philosophy of the Middle
Ages, as is evidentin the twelfth-century writings
of Johnof Salisburyand Alan of Lille (Nederman
1990, 127-31; Sheridan 1980, 120-2), as well as
later,in sermonssuch as thosewrittenby Giordano
da Pisa, a Dominican friarof the early fourteenth
century(Frugoni1991,186-7). This view had neo-
platonicroots,as discussed by Dutton (1983), that
saw the city as a scaled-down world. Like the
wider cosmos, the citywas a 'body' made up of
parts,each performing particularfunctions to bene-
fit the overall order and structureof the whole
(see above). The citywas a 'body' metaphorically,
then,but also in manycases in medieval Europe it
was corporalin a literal sense: a political entity
made up of citizens and ratifiedin a charterof
incorporationmade a city 'corporate' - a 'body'
of constitutionalstatus - representing,however
unequally, the citizens that were of its making
(Weinbaum 1937; Luscombe 1992). The religious
processions of some later medieval towns and
citieshave been interpretedin this context,of the
civic body performing bodily not only to promote
civic identitybut also to instil social order and
local control,and so enhance social cohesion and
legitimateinternaldifferences (see PhythianAdams
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305
1972; James1983; Rubin 1991). The religiousand
civic processions thus embodied both collective
(civic) and individual(citizen)performance, bond-
ing thetwo. However,despitean ever growinglit-
eraturein medievalstudieson thereligious,social,
literaryand dramaturgicalaspects of these urban
processions (see Hanawalt and Reyerson 1994;
Twycross 1996; Ashby and Huskin 2001), and
increasingawareness of theirChristiansymbolism
and cultural meanings (Nijsten 1997; Boogaart
2001), the significanceof theirspatialdimensions
remains largely overlooked, despite successive
anthropologicalstudiesthatstresstheinterrelated-
ness ofritualand geography,and theirmutualcon-
stitutiverole in conveyingideas of sacred space
and time(Eliade 1959;Wheatley1969); in thiscase
the cosmologiesand cosmogoniesof the medieval
Christianworld.
Urban processionsin the Middle Ages mightbe
held to veneratea local sainton theirfeastday, or
to celebratea moreuniversalholyday, in favourof
say theBlessed VirginMaryor one of theapostles,
or a date in celebrationof thelifeof Christhimself,
notablyat Easter,the most importanttime in the
Christian calendar (Tydeman 1978, 96). There
would be processionsof different kinds too, from
processionsthat carriedfortharound a town the
relics of a particularsaint, the local patron saint
especially,or those that involved solemn proces-
sion followingChrist'sPassion and the Stationsof
the Cross, as MargeryKempe recordsin her pil-
grimagevisit to Jerusalem(Atkinson1983),or the
mysteryor 'miracle'plays thatwere held in many
Europeantownsand citiesin thelaterMiddle Ages
involvinglocal townspeople and guild organiza-
tions who, on either specially set-up temporary
stages or on movingcarts,enacted particularepi-
sodes from Scripture (the Creation, the Flood,
Judgement Day and so forth),as well as othersorts
of procession exaltingthe arrival of royaltyin a
city,or the appointmentto civic officeof a new
mayor, in each case linked to and symbolically
imitatingChrist'sadvent and religiousinvestiture
(see Twycross 1996; Nijsten 1997; Attreed1994).
The routesthatprocessionstook,the patternsthey
tracedout throughtheurbanlandscape,give some
indicationsof how the ritualperformancesof the
individual (citizen) and collective (civic) bodies
replicated and reinforcedthe mystical symbolic
formofthecity.
Of these urban processions,those which had
Eucharistic dimensions, memorializing and
306 KeithD Lilley
commemorating the body of Christ(corpuschristi), the lifeof Christ,see Rubin1991),theycollectively
are especially significant, for throughcelebrating representedthe linearityof Judeo-Christian cos-
Christ'sown body thesocial 'body' of thecitywas mogony,where time definitelybegins and ends
mysticallyand symbolicallyconjoinedwiththatof (distinct,therefore, fromthosecosmogonies,deriv-
the wider 'cosmic body' (Nijsten 1997; Boogaart ing forexample fromPlato, thatpresenta cyclical
2001). Corpus Christi processions became wide- view of world history)(see Grierson1975). The
spread in towns and cities from the thirteenth body of Christwas, of course,the embodimentof
centuryonwards, arisingfromearlierEucharistic thisworldhistory,forin Him was thepast,present
practices(Nelson 1974; Rubin 1991). The feast of and futureof the world,its Creation,Fall and Sal-
Corpus Christiwas celebratedeveryyear between vation,as depicted visually by mappaemundi such
late May and late June,its actual date depending as theEbstorfand Psalter'maps' (showingChrist's
on when Easterfell,and 'came to occupya particu- body superimposedupon thedisc oftheworld;see
larlyprominentplace in thetownsman's[sic] litur- above and Kuhnel 1998). So with the Corpus
gical calendar' duringthe fourteenth and fifteenth ChristiDay processionthe civic body was not just
centuries(James1983,4). Aftermass, a communal performing Christ'sbody as 'a centralsymbol of
procession led by the clergy carried the conse- social wholeness' (James1983, 11), it also repres-
cratedhost,thebody ofChrist, ented all that Christ'sbody stood for cosmologi-
callyand cosmogenically:thetownas a social body
throughthe principalthoroughfare of the place ... to performedHis body as the embodimentof the
some otherchurchat the otherend of the processional
whole world,tracingthroughthe town's centrean
route,wherethe host was deposited,and the religious
side of thecelebrations... completed.(James1983,5) axis symbolizingthe course of the world's linear
history,as foretoldby Holy Scripture.
In England,Rubin(1991,267-8) pointsout thatthe The idea that cosmogonyand cosmologywere
most common processional routes in the towns representedby theformof processionalroutes- in
linked 'the peripheryto the centre',forminga their traces - is furtherborne out by the ritual
linear trace through the urban landscape, a geographiesand mythologiesassociated with the
symbolicaxis, as was the case at Beverley,York EucharisticprocessionoftheHoly Blood,as Booga-
and, seemingly,Coventry (see Phythian-Adams art (2001) has recentlydemonstratedforthe case
1972). The urban focus of Eucharisticprocession of Bruges,wherea phial of Christ'sblood was car-
routeswas usually a cathedralor main churchof ried throughthe cityeveryMay 3, on the feastof
the town, or the marketplace (Rubin 1991, 268), the Holy Cross. Boogaartmaps out theroutetaken
and it too symbolizedan axis,an axismundiaround by theprocession,whichbegan in thecentreof the
which the heavens revolved (cf. Wheatley1971), cityand fromtheremoved out south-westwards to
the city as a whole thus representing,micro- the circuitof the city'souterdefences,fromwhere
cosmically,thewiderworldwhereJerusalemstood it proceeded clockwise, as it were, around the
at itssymboliccentre. walls, passing in and out of certaingates along the
In additionto the processionof the consecrated way (where psalms were recited)until the city's
host throughthe urban landscape, Corpus Christi circumference had been completelycircumnavig-
Day was celebratedthroughthestagingof plays in ated, returningback throughthe streetsby which
thestreets, so-calledmystery plays,well-documented the processionhad firstcome, back to the city's
examplesin Englandbeing Coventry,York,Wake- centreand the restingplace of the holy relic.The
fieldand Chester,in Irelandin Dublin,butparalleled processionthus traces out a symbolicform,con-
also in towns and cities in continentalEurope nectingcentrewith edge, and encompassingthe
(Nelson 1974; Rubin 1991; Muir 1995). The plays whole city,sociallyand spatially.The circletraced
compriseddialogues or tableauxvivantsperformed by the processionis, Boogaart(2001,89-90) points
in the street,sometimeson mobile wagons (pag- out,symbolicof thewidercosmos,itselfconceived
eants), the whole ensemble passing throughthe of as a circle, sacralizing the space of the city
townscape, stopping at certain locations for the throughcircumscribing it withChrist'sown blood
performances to takeplace (Tydeman1978,97-120; (see also Rubin 1991, 267-9). The circularmove-
Craig 1957,viii-ix).Because theplays enacted,usu- mentalso imitatedcosmictimeas well as space, for
ally,thewhole of timefromCreationto Judgement the laterMiddle Ages saw a fusionof neoplatonic
Day (Johnston1997),as toldby theBible(including cosmology,and its cyclicalnotionofworldhistory,

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CitiesofGod?
with the Judeo-Christian traditionof cosmogony
(see Grierson 1975). Indeed the procession at
Bruges had similaritiesto rogationalpatternsper-
formedwidely in medieval Europe (see Metford
1991, 120; Rubin 1991,247), where the communal
beatingof the bounds of the parish not only cere-
moniallysanctifiedits territoryand inhabitantsbut
also celebratedthe annual cycle and the earth's
regeneration(Boogaart 2001, 76). The Eucharist,
too,was a celebrationofregeneration.
The whole 'processionoftheHoly Blood bridged
cosmicand civic historyat different levels,implic-
itly associating communityand cosmos, world
salvationand the restorationof justiceduringhis-
toricaltime'(Boogaart2001,90). ThroughEucharis-
ticprocessions,thecity(spatiallyand socially)thus
became a symbol of the wider Christiancosmos,
the circular trace of the procession around the
walls markingout its circumference, and the start
and end pointsat the ceremonialcentreof the city
markingthe axis mundi,parallelingcontemporary
images ofthecityand cosmos,in mappaemundi and
depictionsof the heavenlyJerusalem.Eucharistic
processions,such as thoseat Brugesand elsewhere
in medievalEurope,embodiedthecosmogonyand
cosmology of the Christianuniverse, conjoining
civic (citizen) and cosmic (Christ's)bodies in the
minds of the local townspeople,and performing
throughthem symbolicurban forms.These per-
formedurban forms,moreover,shared the same
symbolismthatwas knownand used by thosewho
were makingmaterialurbanlandscapes,and those
who were representing them,in textand in image,
connectingonce again bothcityand cosmos in the
mindsofthosewho were there.
Cities of God?
Augustine's De civitateDei had a long-standing
influenceon Christianthinkingin the Latin West
throughout theMiddleAges,numerouscopiesbeing
made of it, some exquisitely illustrated with
illuminationsshowing a perfectand ideal city
lookinglike contemporary images of the heavenly
Jerusalem (Stone 2001; Rosenau 1983). For
Augustinetherewere two 'cities',the 'cityof this
world' and the 'cityof God' (Augustine1984,595,
762). But Augustine's 'city' was not an urban
place in a literal sense; it was an idea, a meta-
phorical,mysticalcitythatencompassed all those
who were to be saved at the Final Judgement - the
world to come; a 'city' conceived in neoplatonic
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307
terms,therefore, as in Cicero's de republica,a body
of people (see Figgis 1921; Barrow1950; Hoffman
1975). The medieval citydealt withabove, in each
of thethree'mappings',is also a mysticalone, like-
wise a combinationof Christianand neoplatonic
ideas of sacred space and time,about God and the
world,about cosmologyand cosmogony.Through
each of them we can begin to understandmore
deeply the ways in which urban landscapes were
symbolicallyrepresented,constructedand experi-
enced duringtheMiddle Ages.
'A symbol', so writes Visser, 'is a resonating
thing,makingsuggestionsand connections,point-
ing in manydirectionsat once; it can neverbe capt-
ured entirely'(2000, 221). To medieval Christians
the citywas a symbolthatpointedin manydirec-
tionsat once. As we have seen,at one and thesame
timeit stood forthe world,the body, the cosmos,
the earth,forChristand forGod. Eliade (1959,52-
8, 166) calls this kind of conceptual connectivity
'homology', and he considers it fundamentalto
human existenceand experiencein a sacralized
world. Through it religious meaning is given to
those 'ordinary',tangibleobjectsand things,such
as stones,houses, trees,and also, of course,cities.
Such worldlythings,he says, manifestthe sacred,
a hierophany whereby'for those who have a reli-
gious experienceall natureis capable of revealing
itselfas cosmic sacralty'(Eliade 1959, 11-12). For
Christiansof the Middle Ages, the cityconnected
the otherworldly world (of God) withthe worldly
world of everyday(human) existence.In contem-
poraryvisualand textualrepresentations ofmedieval
cities- both heavenlyand earthly- thishomology
was demonstratedby shared forms, especially
urbanformsbased on the circleand square, quart-
ered to make thesign of thecross.These particular
symbolicformsrelateto Christian(Scripturaland
neoplatonic) conceptionsof cosmogonyand cos-
mology,givingthecities- and theirforms- cosmic
dimensions.Urban formsof the Middle Ages thus
manifestedthe sacred,and throughcontemporary
imagery,urbanlandscapes on thegroundand per-
formancesof civic and religiousrituals,theycon-
structedand conveyedChristianideas and beliefs.
Rightfromthe earliestdays, a special relation-
ship existed between Christiansand the urban
environment(Baldovin 1987, 254-62). Symboli-
cally,the city,it seems,not onlybroughtthe faith-
fulspirituallycloserto God, but actuallywas itself
imaginedto be higherand therefore 'anagogically'
nearer to heaven, and God 'most high' (Eliade
308 KeithD Lilley
had meanings at the time, a symbolism that
1959,118). In the divine hierarchyof the Christian
cosmos,then,thecityliterallyand mysticallystood connectedthecity- as a conceived,builtand lived
between 'man' and God, connectingearthlyand space - with the wider cosmos, the Christian
heavenlyworlds,as evidencedby theidea thatthe world. This should not be surprising if it is
citywas a small 'world', a microcosm,and also in accepted- as it was in the Middle Ages - that'all
the way thatthe citywas understoodas a 'body', formsare endowed with spirit',but so oftenit is
homologizingthe citywith the human body, the the case that medieval urban landscapes are
social body, the cosmic body - and the body of mapped by geographers(and others)in a 'literal'
Christ.The citywas mystical,therefore, ratherthan a 'mystical'sense, even thoughboth
because it
was being interpretedin a 'mysticalsense' (mor- means were used by medieval Christiansto make
ally, allegoricallyand anagogically,according to sense of the world around them.What this paper
Aquinas). Such symbolismis of course recursive, suggests is that for those concerned with
and so the mystical'city' - the 'city-cosmos',theinterpreting urban landscapes of the Middle Ages,
city as a 'body', the 'city of God' - createscities
an approach that combines both morphological
withmysticalmeaning.The imaginedand material and iconographicstudy - that is, a literal and
mystical'mapping' of landscape - allows us to
cities conjoinedin Lucian's allegoricaldescription
of Chester(forexample),theurbanlandscapes laid look at medieval urban landscapes more fromthe
out geometricallyby mensores, pointof view of thosewho were thereat the time,
or rituallycircum-
scribed in the religious performancesby local to see them throughmedieval Christianeyes. In
inhabitants,are to those who were there all endingthispaper some attemptwill be made here
inscribedwith Christianmeaning: the 'city' in a to indicatehow this 'remapping'of the medieval
mysticalsense thus pointed to the city'smystical city could have broader implicationsfor current
meaning,a 'city'ofGod. geographicalenquiry.
These medieval Christian'cities of God' are by One ofthepurposesof thispaper was to address
no means unique, however. Parallels exist else- the apparent twin-trackapproach to landscape
where. For religious cultures around the world, taken by geographersin recent years. As Muir
both past and present,certaincharacteristics (1999) and Seymour(2000) and othershave pointed
are
commonto what Wheatley(1969) describesas the out, there are two main traditionsof landscape
'city as symbol'; in particularhow the formsof study in UK geography,one owing more to the
both imaginedand materialcities mirrorthe per- landscape historywork of Hoskins (1955) and
ceived formof the wider cosmos (its cosmology), Conzen (1960) that has continuedthroughoutthe
and how a ritualfoundingof a new citywas seen 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (see Hooke 2001), and
to equate withtheworld'screation(itscosmogony). remainslargelyunaffectedby the developmentof
Likewise, with the mandala for instance, urban the second of the two traditions,which instead
landscapes are representedin ways that connect owes moreto theemergenceof humanisticgeogra-
city with cosmos, constructedby using a sacred phy in the late 1970s and early 1980s,represented
geometryof conjoinedabstractshapes, and experi- for example by the work of Cosgrove (1984),
enced throughembodied religiousperformancein amongmanyothers.The firstofthesetwo 'schools'
cyclical and linear forms of urban ritual (see is decidedlymorepositivistin its orientation, with
Wheatley 1971; Nitz 1992). In this context,then, a concern for mapping out, literally,how land-
medieval Christianswere not alone in seeing the scapes changeover time,while the second is more
city as a 'map' of religiousbeliefsand symbolic 'critical',in a theoreticalsense,and concernedwith
meanings. understandinglandscape meanings,a metaphori-
cal 'mapping' of landscape. The two 'schools', it
seems, are thus on quite different Yet
trajectories.
Re/mappingthe medieval city
approachingmedievalurbanlandscapes fromboth
The threemappingsof medieval urbanlandscapes traditions, as thispaper has, it is clearthatan inter-
offeredhere serve to show how it is possible to pretationbased on form(morphe)is common to
begin to contextualizetheirformsand so interpret each. Whetherstudyinglandscapes on the ground
themmore in termsof how theywere seen in the or as representations, recognitionof this mutual
Middle Ages, throughthe beliefsand practicesof focuson formmighthelp to bringthetwo 'schools'
Christianfaith.Doing so shows thaturban forms closer together in such a way that actually

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CitiesofGod?
strengthensgenerally the place of landscape in
geography.
The second broad concern this paper has
addressed relatesto where the Middle Ages stand
in contemporary geographicaldiscourse.The point
has alreadybeen made thatin recenthistoricaland
culturalgeographiesmore oftenthan not it is the
'modern' period that is under scrutiny,with the
Middle Ages usually under-represented or even
absent altogether(see, for example, Graham and
Nash 2000). This absence is especially evident in
recent criticalperspectivesof the city. In Hall's
(1998) magisterialsurveyof citiesand civilization,
for example, thereis a conspicuous gap of more
than a millennium,between 'Imperial Rome' and
'the rediscoveryof life' in RenaissanceFlorence-
the medieval cityis not mentionedat all. So too
with Soja's 'remappingof the geohistoryof city-
space', which is likewise ambitious in its treat-
mentof past urban life,and manages to condense
down the subsequent '3000 years followingthe
declineof Ur' to one shortparagraph,a briefinter-
lude betweenthe 'first'and 'second urban revolu-
tion' (2000, 69). To writegeographiesthat silence
the Middle Ages in general,and the medieval city
in particular,would seem to me to be mistaken,for
it presentsa particularlyskewed view of the past,
and therefore also of thepresent.
How, then,should the Middle Ages be brought
into currentgeographical discourse? Placing the
medieval city within theorizeddebates on map-
ping and landscape, the approach taken in this
paper, offersone possible route. However, rather
than simplytaking(post-)modernideas and theo-
ries and 'applying'themto the medieval city,this
paper has used ways of seeingwhichwere current
in theMiddle Ages - forexample,themicrocosmic
city- the 'mystical'city- to tryto make sense of
the medieval citythroughthe eyes of those who
were there(see also Lilley forthcoming). In doing
this it has emergedthatthe 'iconographyof land-
scape' of contemporaryhistorical and cultural
geography practice seems to equate with how
landscapes were interpretedduring the Middle
Ages, betweenthe ninthand fifteenth centurieslet
us say, and so conceptuallythe 'medieval' and
(post-)modernapproaches to 'mapping' landscape
would appear to have more in commonthan one
mighthave expected,both being concernedwith
a landscape's 'literal' and 'mystical'meaning. By
acknowledgingsuch connectionsbetweenpast and
present,thereis scope to take a less compartmen-
This content downloaded from 189.138.222.69 on Sat, 1 Jun 2013 13:12:46 PM
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309
talized view of thepast - avoidingparticularly the
tendencygeographershave had of adoptingMarx-
ian historicalperiods- and tryto recognizecontin-
uities and discontinuitiesin time and space that
may in turnchallengeour assumptionsabout the
Middle Ages, as well as laterperiods,the 'modern'
and 'post-modern'included. In sum, then,if the
apparent silence of the Middle Ages is to be
redressedin contemporary geographicaldiscourse,
as I suggest it needs to be, then one issue that
requires rethinking, perhaps most fundamentally
of all, is what especially separates the 'medieval'
fromthe 'modern'?For a start,the cityof theMid-
dle Ages is not as faraway as we mightimagine.
Let us not forgetthatits Christiansymbolismstill
lives on in presentday life,forexample in studies
of Augustine'sCityofGod,which remainsa foun-
dationaltextin bothRomanCatholicand Anglican
theology,and in numeroustownsand citieswhere
Christians of various traditionsthroughoutthe
world continueto performChrist'sPassion and his
journeyto thecross.
Acknowledgements
I am gratefulto the fourrefereeswho made very
helpfulcommentswhich much improvedan ear-
lier draft of this paper. I have also benefited
greatlyfromdiscussionsheld withWim Boerefijn,
Tom Boogaart II, Denis Cosgrove,UlrichFischer,
David Friedman,ChristianFrost,James Higgins,
David Livingstone,Rev JohnMedhurst,David Pal-
liser,AnngretSimms and TerrySlater,not all of
whom concurentirelywith my particularreading
of the medieval city.I wish to acknowledge,too,
the opportunityaffordedto me by the British
Academy, for a three-yearPost-DoctoralFellow-
ship thatenabled me to spend timethinkingabout
medievalurbanformsmorecritically.
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