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Rare/ World's largest medieval map found in Venice

2024-02-14 15:55:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Rare/ World's largest medieval map found in Venice

On the second floor of St. Mark's Library in Venice, a world map takes up the entire room. This map was created in 1459 and summarizes all the geographical knowledge of the time and is undoubtedly the largest medieval map of the world.

Almost twice the size of the famous English Hereford Mappa Mundi, this exquisitely decorated map showing Europe, Africa and Asia was the masterpiece of Fra Mauro, a monk of the Camaldolese order who lived on the small Venetian island of San Michele.

Although the monk never left Venice, the map he created is remarkably accurate in depicting cities, provinces, continents, rivers and mountains, the BBC reports.

America is not on the map, as Columbus would make his voyage across the ocean 33 years later, and Australia is also not part of the map.

But Japan (or in Fra Mauro's words, "Cipango") is there, making its first appearance on a Western chart. Even more surprisingly, Africa is correctly placed. 

These innovations and the fact that the map was completed several decades before Christopher Columbus sailed to America, contribute to Fra Mauro's map being considered the geographical link between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

For contemporary visitors, his map is a reminder that maps were once not only practical tools, but also a matter of beauty – and a way to tell the most extraordinary stories. /CNA 

Rare/ World's largest medieval map found in Venice





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