Did you know that there was a Book of Roger?

Almost three years ago now, I did a blog posting about King Roger II of Sicily (1095-1154) and speculated that I might have been named after him because my mother came from Naples which was part of Roger’s kingdom.

I’ve recently been watching a BBC2 television series on “The Normans” which included the fascinating information that this king commissioned in 1138 a work known as the Book of Roger which was  finished in 1154.  It was the best world atlas and description of the world of the time and remained so for some three centuries.

The effort was called “the book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands”.  I like that and it resonates with my own travels.


 




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