Fra Mauro map
Mapamundi de Fra Mauro
- Date
- c. 1450 · confidence medium
- Place
- Venice, Veneto, Italy
- Credited to
- Fra Mauro and Andrea Bianco
- People
- 👤 Fra Mauro1385–1459
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
A circular world map about two metres across, south at the top, with hundreds of legends combining reports from Marco Polo, Portuguese sailors and Arab and Ethiopian travellers. It shows Africa as circumnavigable by sea before Dias's voyages.
The map (Biblioteca Marciana) was made for the monastery of San Michele in Murano; the date of 1450 is traditional and the copy made for Afonso V (1459) is lost.
What it led to
- a cartographic synthesis of Portuguese and Asian expedition information
- a break with the T-O model and with the sole authority of Ptolemy