Fra Mauro’s Mappa Mundi and Fifteenth-Century Venice

Abstract

Of all the known medieval and Renaissance maps, none is more famous than Fra Mauro's Mappa Mundi of 1449-1460.This large table-sized map, with beautiful and intricate illustrations, bristling with descriptive legends, is often used for illustrations in modern world-history textbooks.And yet, this is a map that defies categorization or full explanation.Historians for many generations have argued as to whether the map represented the end of medieval cartographic knowledge or the beginning of new cartographic understanding in the age of exploration; whether its use of vernacular (Venetian) was indicative of its parochial nature; and whether it was influential or ignored.Angelo Cattaneo, in his magisterial account of the life and times of this important artifact, is firmly convinced and convincing that Fra Mauro's map was embedded in his time and place, that it was more modern than medieval, that it was well appreciated and understood, and that it supplied an important step in the development of early modern cartography.

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