Tapestry treasure hidden in plain sight

bodleianlibs:

Some of the most remarkable items from the Bodleian Libraries’ collections have been selected for long-term display in our Treasures Exhibition. This is where visitors can find a whole slate of the ‘greatest hits’ in one single gallery, from Shakespeare’s First Folio to Magna Carta, or Handel’s hand-annotated Messiah to Shelley’s long-lost Poetical Essay.

One extra gem – almost an honorary member of the Treasures selection – can be found just outside the exhibition. Hanging proudly on the wall in the Weston Library’s Blackwell Hall is the Sheldon Tapestry Map of Worcestershire.

This is one of four lavish, groundbreaking tapestry maps, alongside others of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire, that were intricately woven from silk and wool for landowner Ralph Sheldon in the 1590s. Sections of the Oxfordshire and Worcestershire maps have been owned by the Bodleian since they were donated in 1809; we have also purchased several pieces of the Gloucestershire map at auction in the years since.

Because it’s simply so detail-packed and comes with so many stories, the Sheldon Tapestry Map gets its own special event for visitors on every weekday.

From 11.30am until noon one of our guides (who is, whenever possible, an expert from our Map Room) goes on duty in Blackwell Hall, ready to tell stories about the map or answer any visitors’ questions.

There’s a lot to say about the Sheldon maps, and the questions asked by guests will ensure that every morning’s talk is different, but here are just a few of the things we learned from the expert guide in just a few minutes – and all while we were taking onboard the tapestry’s immense, delicate beauty in person.

• Each of the four tapestries shows one of the labours of Hercules. On the Worcestershire map is a depiction of Hercules killing the Hydra.
• The map is largely consistent with many other maps at the time, but also features the brilliantly-named WorldesEnd which, soon after the tapestries were completed, vanished from maps entirely.
• Weston House, Ralph Sheldon’s own home, is featured on all four maps, making the links between their geography more obvious.
• The map’s scale is approximately 1:25,000, which is the same as today’s Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps.
• The Worcestershire map is detailed in purple, with Oxford set in orange, Gloucestershire in green and Warwickshire in yellow.

The Sheldon Tapestry Map and the Treasures Exhibition can be visited at the Weston Library, seven days a week. A talk on the Sheldon Map takes place on every weekday morning at 11.30am.

Photographs of onlookers with Sheldon Tapestry Map by John Cairns.