Fra Mauro, O.S.B. Cam., (c.1400–1464) was an Italian ( Venetian)

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

who lived in the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

. He created the most detailed and accurate map of the world up until that time, the

Fra Mauro map The Fra Mauro map is a World map, map of the world made around 1450 by the Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) cartographer Fra Mauro, which is “considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography." It is a circular planisphere drawn on ...

. Mauro was a

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

of the

Camaldolese The Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona () are a Catholic Church, Catholic monastic order of pontifical right for men founded by Romuald, St. Romuald. Its name is derived from the Holy Hermitage () in Camaldoli, high in the mountains of Tuscany, ...

Monastery of St. Michael, located on the island of

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was o ...

in the

Venetian Lagoon The Venetian Lagoon (; ) is an enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea, in northern Italy, in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Italian and Venetian languages, ' (cognate of Latin ' ), has provided the English name for an enclosed, ...

. It was there that he maintained a cartography workshop. He also was employed by some very powerful men like Prince

Henry the Navigator Princy Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu ( Portuguese: ''Infante Dom Henrique''; 4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (), was a Portuguese prince and a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese ...

Biography

Fra Mauro was born before or around the year 1400. In his youth, Mauro had traveled extensively as a merchant and a soldier. He was familiar with the Middle East. He is recorded in the records of the Monastery of St. Michael from 1409. As a lay member of the monastery, Mauro was employed as mapmaker. In the records of the monastery his main job was recorded as collecting the monastery's rents, but from the 1450s he is also mentioned as the creator of a series of world maps. Although he was no longer free to travel, due to his religious status, he would frequently consult with merchants of the city upon their return from overseas voyages. By 1450 he composed a great ''mappa mundi'' – a world map – with surprising accuracy, including extensive written comments reflecting the geographic knowledge of his time. The map is known today as the "

The Fra Mauro world map

The Fra Mauro world map, or mappa mundi, was a major cartographical work that compiled much of the geographical knowledge of the time. The map covers over five square meters. The map is extremely detailed and contains many thousands of texts and illustrations. The world map took several years to complete and was the most detailed and accurate world map that had been produced up until that time. Fra Mauro created the map under a commission by King

Afonso V of Portugal Afonso V (; 15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Africa. ...

. 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 24 April 1459, and sent to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, but that copy did not survive. Along with the map was a letter from the

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ) – in Italian, was the doge or highest role of authority within the Republic of Venice (697–1797). The word derives from the Latin , meaning 'leader', and Venetian Italian dialect for 'duke', highest official of the ...

. It was intended for

Prince Henry the Navigator Princy Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Infante Dom (title), Dom Henrique''; 4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (), was a Infante of Portugal, Portuguese prince and a ...

, Afonso V's uncle. It encouraged the prince to continue funding exploratory journeys. Fra Mauro died the following year, while he was making a copy of the map for the

Signoria A ''signoria'' () was the governing authority in many of the Italian city-states during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. The word ''signoria'' comes from ''signore'' (), or "lord", an abstract noun meaning (roughly) "government", "governi ...

of Venice. The copy was completed by Andrea Bianco. A commemorative medal of the period struck in honor of his cartographic work describes Fra Mauro as "chosmographus incomparabilis".

Other work

Two copies of maps by Fra Mauro are known to survive. One is a

portolan chart Portolan charts are nautical charts, first made in the 13th century in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean basin and later expanded to include other regions. The word ''portolan'' comes from the Italian language, Italian ''portolano'', meaning " ...

in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

, ( Codice Borgiano V) published by Roberto Almagià in 1944. The other was recognized by Antonio Ratti as a copy signed by Giorgio Callapoda at

Candia The name Candia can refer to: People * The House of Candia, a noble family from Savoy (14th-16th) * Alfredo Ovando Candía, 56th president of Bolivia * Antoinette Candia-Bailey, American academic administrator * Cecilia Maria de Candia, British-It ...

and dated 1541, of a lost chart by Fra Mauro, sold at auction in Milan in 1984 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 crater Fra Mauro and associated

Fra Mauro formation The Fra Mauro formation (or Fra Mauro Highlands) is a Geology of the Moon, formation on the near side of the Moon, near side of Moon, Earth's Moon that served as the landing site for the American Apollo 14 mission in 1971. It is named after th ...

of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

are named after him. The

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

lunar mission was intended to explore the Fra Mauro formation, but – due to the explosion aboard the spacecraft – Apollo 13's crew had to return to Earth without landing on the Moon. The formation was instead explored by

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astr ...

and

Edgar Mitchell Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell (September 17, 1930 – February 4, 2016) was a United States Navy officer and United States Naval Aviator, aviator, test pilot, Aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer, Ufology, ufologist, and NASA astronaut. ...

of the

Apollo 14 Apollo 14 (January 31February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to Moon landing, land on the Moon, and the first to land in the Geology of the Moon#Highlands, lunar highlands. It was the las ...

mission in February 1971.

Bibliography

*Cattaneo, Angelo, Il mappamondo di Fra Mauro. Venezia, 1450. San Domenico di Fiesole (Fi), European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization, 2005. Supervisor: Diogo Ramada Curto (EUI); Marica Milanesi (Università di Pavia). Examiners: Patrick Gautier Dalché (IRHT, CNRS, Paris); Anthony Molho (EUI). *Cattaneo, Angelo, Fra Mauro's Mappa mundi and Fifteenth-Century Venice. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers (Series "Terrarum Orbis" directed by P. Gautier Dalché), 2011 []. *Cattaneo, Angelo, "Migrations et métamorphose des formes et savoirs dans la cartographie œcuménique. Europe – Asie, XIIIe–XVIIe siècle", in Besse, Jean-Marc et Tiberghien, Guy (eds), Opérations cartographiques. Arles, Actes Sud, 2016, pp. 234–259 []. *Cattaneo, Angelo, "Dal mappamondo di San Michele al mappamondo di Fra Mauro", in Bouloux, Nathalie; Dan, Anca; Tolias, George (eds), Orbis discipline. Liber amicorum Patrick Gautier Dalché. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016, pp. 713–728. []. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "European Medieval and Renaissance Cosmography: A Story of Multiple Voices", Asian Review of World Histories – The Official Journal of The Asian Association of World Historians, Vol. 4, Issue 1 (January 2016), pp. 35–81. [Online – Print - *Cattaneo, Angelo (con Nanetti, Andrea; Siew Ann Cheong; Chin-Yew Lin), "Maps as Knowledge Aggregators: from Renaissance Italy Fra Mauro to Web Search Engines", The Cartographic Journal, Vol. 52, Issue 2 (2015), pp. 159–167. [Print ]. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "Scomparsa e ricomparsa di un autore: storiografia religiosa, forme della dimenticanza, percorsi della memoria", in Caby, Cécile; Licciardello, Pierluigi (eds), Camaldoli e l’Ordine camaldolese dalle origini alla fine del XV secolo. Atti del I Convegno internazionale di studi in occasione del millenario di Camaldoli (1012-2012). Monastero di Camaldoli, 31 maggio - 2 giugno 2012. Cesena: Centro storico benedettino italiano, 2014 (Serie Italia benedettina), pp. 485–522 []. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "Orb and Sceptre: Cosmography and World Cartography in Portugal and Italian Cities in the Fifteenth Century", Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 59.2 (2009). Special issue: Early Modern Cosmography, edited by Sven Dupré and Frédéric Hallyn, pp. 531–555 - - *Cattaneo, Angelo; "Fra Mauro camaldolese" in Valerio, Vladimiro (ed.), Cartografi veneti. Mappe, uomini e istituzioni per l'immagine e il governo del territorio. Padova: Editoriale Programma, 2007, pp. 233–237 []. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "Letture e lettori della Geografia di Tolomeo a Venezia intorno alla metà del Quattrocento", Geographia Antiqua 4-5 (2005), pp. 41–65 [ISSN 1121-8940]. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "Scritture di viaggio e scrittura cartografica. La mappamundi di Fra Mauro e i racconti di Marco Polo e Niccolò de' Conti", Itineraria 3-4 (2005), pp. 157–202 []. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "Fra Mauro Cosmographus Incomparabilis and His Mappamundi: Documents, Sources, and Protocols for Mapping", in Curto Ramada, Diogo; Cattaneo, Angelo; Ferrand Almeida, André (eds), La cartografia europea tra primo Rinascimento e fine dell´Illuminismo. Firenze: L.S. Olschki, 2003, pp. 19–48 []. *Cattaneo, Angelo; "God in His World. Leonardo Bellini Illuminator of the Earthly Paradise in Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi", Imago Mundi 55 (2003), pp. 97–102 [ & ].

Notes

*Novel ''A Mapmaker's Dream. The meditations of Fra Mauro, cartographer to the Court of Venice.'' by James Cowan. Shambala publications USA. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mauro, Fra Year of birth missing 1460 deaths Camaldolese Order 15th-century Italian cartographers Italian Benedictines Benedictine scholars 15th-century Italian Christian monks Republic of Venice scientists 15th-century Venetian people Medieval geographers