Fra Mauro

Fra Mauro was a 15th century Venetian Camaldolese monk who kept his cartography workshop in the monastery of San Michel in Isola Murano, in the Venetian Lagoon. He was also a mapmaker, who in 1457 mapped the totality of the Old world with surprising accuracy, including extensive written comments reflecting the geographic knowledge of his time. The map is known today as the "Fra Mauro map". A critical edition of the map was edited by Piero Falchetta in 2006.

The 1459 map

Fra Mauro created the map under a commission by king Afonso V of Portugal. Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, is recorded as having collaborated with Fra Mauro in creating the map, as payments made to him between 1448 and 1459 testify. The map was completed on April 24, 1459, and sent to Portugal, but didn't survive. Along with the map was a letter from the ruler of Venice. It was for Prince Henry the Navigator, Alfonso V's uncle. It encouraged the prince to continue funding exploratory journeys. Fra Mauro died the next year while he was making a copy of the map for the Seignory of Venice, and the copy was completed by Andrea Bianco. A contemporary commemorative medal in honour of his cartographic work describes Fra Mauro as "geographus incomparabilis".

Far East

The Fra Mauro world map shows influences from Chinese geography, which can be traced to the information supplied by fellow-Venetian Niccolò Da Conti. [Paul K. Manansala [http://sambali.blogspot.com/2006/07/nicolo-de-conti-glossary.html Nicolo de Conti] , in "Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan" website, accessed 2008-03-17] These influences seem to include mistakes, such as a huge river from the center of Africa flowing into the Red Sea.

Other works

Two copies of maps by Fra Mauro are known to survive. One is a portolan chart in the Vatican Library, (Codice Borgiano V) published by Roberto Almagià in 1944. [Almagià, discussing the copy of another map by Fra Mauro, in the Vatican Library: Roberto Almagià, "Monumenta cartographica vaticana", (Rome 1944) I:32-40; Heinrich Winter, "The Fra Mauro Portolan Chart in the Vatican" "Imago Mundi" 16 (1962), pp. 17-28.] The other was recognized by Antonio Ratti as a copy signed by Giorgio Callapoda at Candia and dated 1541, of a lost chart by Fra Mauro, sold at auction in Milan in 1984 [Galleria Salomon Agustoni Agrati, 24 October 1984, 40,000,000 lire] and now in a private collection, probably in France. [Antonio Ratti, " A Lost Map of Fra Mauro Found in a Sixteenth Century Copy" "Imago Mundi" 40 (1988), pp. 77-85.]

Tributes

The Fra Mauro crater and associated Fra Mauro formation of the Moon are named after him; they were visited by the Apollo 14 astronauts. The Apollo 13 astronauts attempted to visit Fra Mauro but were stopped by the explosion of the No. 2 Oxygen Tank.

Notes