{"id":5876,"date":"2026-01-12T17:45:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T16:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bibliotecanazionalemarciana.cultura.gov.it\/book-and-archival-heritage\/book-and-archival-heritage\/il-mappamondo-di-fra-mauro\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T17:53:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:53:58","slug":"fra-mauros-world-map","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bibliotecanazionalemarciana.cultura.gov.it\/en\/book-and-archival-heritage\/book-and-archival-heritage\/fra-mauros-world-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Fra\u2019 Mauro\u2019s World map"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fra\u2019 Mauro\u2019s World map<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Visit the monumental rooms<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Fra\u2019 Mauro\u2019s World Map, datable to around 1450, is one of the most precious\u2014and best-known\u2014items preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice.<\/p>\n

Produced by the Camaldolese monk Fra\u2019 Mauro, who lived and worked for many years in the monastery on the island of San Michele in Venice, it may be regarded\u2014on account of its workmanship, its monumental scale, and, above all, the history of its creation and its geographical content\u2014as one of the most important documents of Venetian cartography in the period of transition between the medieval conception of the world and the new knowledge brought about by voyages of exploration and navigation.<\/p>\n

The work is executed on parchment sheets pasted onto a wooden support (approx. 230 \u00d7 230 cm), densely covered with inscriptions\u2014around 3,000 in total\u2014containing information of every kind concerning the various regions of the world as it was conceived prior to the discovery of the Americas.<\/p>\n

Particularly important, among other aspects, is the definition of the geography of Africa, based on drawings and information drawn from sources to which Mauro appears to have had exclusive access. <\/p>\n

These sources clearly affirm the circumnavigability of the African continent, half a century before Portuguese navigators would test its feasibility. The question\u2014crucial in the debates of the time\u2014concerning the origin and course of the Nile is likewise resolved through recourse to sources unknown to many contemporary authors.<\/p>\n

Of remarkable interest is the depiction of Asia, based on the accounts of travellers such as Marco Polo and Nicol\u00f2 de\u2019 Conti. Of exceptional importance, moreover, is the original \u201cdialogue\u201d that Mauro weaves with Claudius Ptolemy\u2019s Geography<\/em>, a work that from the fifteenth century onwards served as the touchstone of all geographical discourse.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Digital editions<\/h4>\n