💎💫 Fra Mauro's Map of Mapa Mundi

💎💫 Fra Mauro's Map of Mapa Mundi 🔺

The famous Map of Mapa Mundi, drawn by Fra Mauro, a Venetian monk and cartographer born in 1400, is said to have been commissioned by King Afonso V of Portugal. Its creation took years, finally being completed on April 24, 1459, after which it was sent from Venice to Portugal.

The map is described as the largest map drawn in the Middle Ages, with the original covering more than five square meters. It remains a remarkable achievement in the history of cartography.

The original is preserved in Venice, and a copy was made for the British Library in 1804 by the British archaeologist William Fraser. In 1869, the Venetian bookseller Münster produced the first photographic edition of the map, measuring only 62 x 68 cm. The version displayed at the Sharjah Book Authority headquarters is a photograph taken by the Italian photographer Carlo Naia in 1871, and it matches the original map size of 223 x 223 cm.

🗺️ Fra Mauro's map contains hundreds of detailed illustrations and approximately 3,000 descriptive texts. It is considered one of the last maps prevalent in medieval Europe before the adoption of scientific cartographic methods.

Interestingly, south appears at the top of the map, and north at the bottom, mirroring the map of the renowned scholar Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif al-Idrisi (1100–1165 CE), who preceded Mauro and completed his map in the 12th century. It is likely that Mauro consulted this map.