Circular Visions: An Examination of Greek and Latin Circular World Maps from the Commentary on the Dream of Scipio

This thesis investigates the visual and intellectual history of the Macrobian world map, one of the most enduring cosmological images of the Middle Ages. Focusing on its transmission from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, it traces how the image of the Macrobian world map was reproduced, adapted, and reinterpreted across Latin and Byzantine contexts and into early Renaissance Italy. Drawing on manuscript and early print evidence, the study examines how artists, scribes, and scholars visualised cosmological knowledge through the circular world map and how its meaning shifted across languages, media, and cultural boundaries. By situating the map within its material, philosophical, and artistic frameworks, the thesis demonstrates that the Macrobian map functioned not only as an illustration but as a conceptual tool for expressing the structure of the inhabited world.