map of the pilgrimage route from London to Jerusalem drawn by the 13th-century historian Matthew Paris, who was a monk at St Alban's Abbey. It is one of several manuscripts in his handwriting and with his drawings, and occurs at the beginning of his universal history of the world.

 Matthew Paris’s Map of the Route to Jerusalem. St Albans, c.1250
Matthew Paris was a medieval monk and chronicler. He entered the Abbey of St Alban as a monk on 12 January 1217, and was probably born some 17 years earlier. Matthew spent the rest of his life there, apart from visits to the royal court in London, and a year-long mission that took him to an abbey in Norway.

Matthew Paris produced the most important historical writings of the 13th century. His chief work, the 'Chronica Major', chronicled events from the creation of the world until 1259, the year he died. For its greater part, the 'Chronica Major' is a revision and expansion of an existing chronicle by an earlier St Alban's monk, called Roger of Wendover. From 1235 onwards, however, it's the first-hand record of events the author heard about (perhaps from northbound travellers, who would stay at St Alban's on their first night out of London) or witnessed for himself.