Fra Mauro's Map of the World

The following content was provided by the publisher. Fra Mauro's map of the world--a masterpiece of western cartography, composed around 1450--has until now never been the subject of a modern study, despite its immense renown. The map has been reproduced and cited in hundreds of books, but the most recent full study was in 1806: Placido Zurla's Il mappamondo di Fra Mauro. In 1956 a facsimile edition on 46 sheets, accompanied by the transcription of the whole corpus of inscriptions (about 3000), was published. The present study aims at an analysis and an in-depth study of this important document, offering the reader an understanding within its contemporary cultural framework. The project was born from the co-operation between historians and scholars belonging to two Venetian institutions, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana--where the map is still preserved--and the Centre for Survey and Cartography of the Istituto Universitario di Architettura. The work is in two parts, a volume of studies and a CD-ROM.