Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day. UNESCO
and historical geography relating to archaeological sites in Europe, Africa and Asia is only known through the Tabula Peutingeriana.
The original Tabula dates back to the first half of the 5th century and the manuscript inscribed on the Register is an authentic copy made at the end of the 12th century – in effect, a medieval facsimile in the form of a scroll.
The Tabula Peutingeriana is named after Konrad Peutinger, a German humanist and antiquarian who was responsible for publishing the map in 1591. It stayed in his family, but in 1737 it was bought for the Habsburg Imperial Library (now the Austrian National Library).
The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of only two preserved book scrolls made in the Middle Ages as an imitation of the form used in Antiquity for literary texts (that is, book scroll written on papyrus). The other manuscript, kept in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Vatican Library, is a copy of the text of the Old Testament made in 10th-century Constantinople.
Song of the Nibelungs, a heroic poem from medieval Europe
Inscribed 2009
What is it
The Nibelungenlied, or The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic heroic poem written in Middle High German. Based on older oral tradition, it was transcribed around AD 1200. Three separate manuscript copies on vellum are listed.
Why was it inscribed
The Nibelungenlied is a rare example of heroic poetry in German literature and is important in world terms, ranking alongside Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Beowulf and the Chanson de Roland.
Where is it
Codex A: Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany; Codex B: Monastic Library of St Gallen, Switzerland; Codex C: Regional Library of the State of Baden, Karlsruhe, Germany
The Nibelungenlied tells the story of dragon-slayer Siegfried from his childhood and later marriage to Kriemhild, to his murder and the subsequent story of Kriemhild’s revenge. It culminates in the extinction of the Burgundians or Nibelungs at the court of the Huns. The story takes place in Central Europe along the Rhine and the Danube, corresponding to modern Germany, Austria, and Hungary; a single episode takes place in Iceland. It dates back to the time of mass migration across Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries AD and is known across the continent.
The roots of the myth lie in the memory of a disastrous defeat of the Eastern German tribe of the Burgundians by the Roman general Aëtius as they advanced from the Rhine to Roman Gaul in around AD 436.
The Nibelungenlied was written during the 13th century in the Alemannic or Bavarian language area within the Alps region. It originated in the classical time of Middle German literature and was written in the form of singable stanzas. Its author is unknown, but his patron was Wolfger von Erla, bishop of Passau from 1191 to 1204.
Rediscovered by a new generation in the 18th century, it came to the fore in the 19th as a national epic poem both in numerous illustrations and in the musical dramas of Richard Wagner. It has exerted a wide influence on the history of thought, literature, art and music.
It is known only in the versions that have survived in thirty-seven manuscripts and manuscript fragments from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The three main manuscripts inscribed in the Register are labelled A, B and C. Each one is unique and transmits a different version of the text. They were written within a century of the poem’s composition and are the earliest and most important manuscripts of the text.
Codex A preserves the shortest version, probably in anticipation that its readers had some knowledge of the oral text. Codex B, some decades older, contains other Middle High German epic poems besides The Nibelungenlied. The oldest codex is C, a revised and expanded version of the text.
Inscribed 2009
What is it
Magna Carta (or Great Charter) is the document recording the agreement made at Runnymede in 1215 between King John and the English barons, at the conclusion of a series of political crises of John’s reign.
Why was it inscribed
Magna Carta is one of the most celebrated documents in English history. The charter limited for the first time royal authority in tax, feudal rights and justice. It also reasserted the power of customary practice to limit unjust and arbitrary behaviour by the king. In essence, it established the principle that the king was not above the law, but had to rule within it.
Magna Carta has now become a byword and icon of freedom and democracy with an impact and influence across the world.
Where is it
British Library, London, UK; Lincoln Castle, Lincoln, UK; Salisbury Cathedral Chapter House, Salisbury, UK
The issuing of Magna Carta was one of the most famous acts in history, but its immediate origins lay not only in English Common Law but also in the immediate political context of the period.
John’s brother King Richard II, the Lionheart, had lost some of the family’s lands in France and committed his successor to enormous expense in the attempt to hold on to Aquitaine and their homelands in Normandy. After his accession to the English throne in 1199, John’s own military, political and personal shortcomings brought the almost complete loss of their French possessions by 1204. For the rest of his reign, the recovery of Normandy remained his primary aim.
For this John needed money, and the dispensation of royal justice was a key source. Taxes were increased and privileges and offices within the king’s gift were also sold to raise funds. The heavy financial and judicial burdens of his policies were felt keenly.
John’s political position had been weakened by his six-year disagreement with the powerful Pope Innocent III over the succession to the Archbishopric of Canterbury which had resulted in the king’s excommunication and England’s being placed under an interdict disallowing church services. John’s popularity with his God-fearing subjects – including his barons – declined further. In theory, the terms of the interdict also absolved the king’s subjects from their allegiance and allowed a Christian ruler to invade England to take the throne. John’s disagreement with the papacy was settled only weeks before he went into battle against the French in July 1214.
Despite his success in raising money for his war chest and re-cementing relations with the pope, John failed in the decisive battle at Bouvines with the French King Philip II and was forced to return to England empty-handed with his barons.
The loss of Normandy and John’s attempts to raise more money opened the floodgates for protest and within months the king faced a baronial revolt. On the back foot, he was forced to meet with the rebels at Runnymede near Windsor in June 1215. Archbishop Langton, the man John had rejected for the vacant see at Canterbury, mediated the peace agreement which was made orally and subsequently written up by royal scribes. Copies were then despatched around the country.
Inside the Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede.
A later depiction of King John signing Magna Carta at Runnymede before his barons and the archbishop.
Four copies of the charter as issued in 1215 are listed on the Memory of the World Register. Two are in the British Library although one of