While the original map was completed in 1459, and sent to Portugal, it was lost.
Fra Mauro died the following year, while making a copy of it for the government of the Republic of Venice.
The copy was then completed by Andrea Bianco, a Venetian sailor and cartographer who is recorded as having collaborated with Fra Mauro in creating the original map, as payments made to him between 1448 and 1459 testify.
Fra Mauro gradually set up a survey of seas and mountains by cross referencing stories from merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, and adventurers which included inventories of wonders and monsters.
He immersed himself in their accounts and brought them together by mapping them.
Marco Polo is known for his travelogue which recounts his experiences through Asia, Persia, China, and Indonesia between 1276 and 1291, introducing that little-known world to Europeans of the Middle Ages.
Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China, but was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience.
Marco Polo learned mercantile trade from his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia and met Kublai Khan.
In 1269, the two brothers returned to Venice and Marco met his dad for the first time.
When the Polo brothers returned to Venice from their first journey to China, they brought back several goods and fabrics, introducing in Venice certain technical details and typical decorations with plants and animals used by the Chinese.
The three then embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa.
As a Venetian, Marco was imprisoned and dictated his stories to a cellmate.
Marco was released in 1299, and became a wealthy merchant, married, and had three children.
He died in 1324 and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice.
There is a substantial literature based on Polo’s writings; he also influenced others in European cartography, leading up to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map.
Crowd sourcing a map had never been easier, and Fra Mauro took full advantage.
He used their information to draw the map itself and pepper it with almost 3,000 annotations.
This map showed , the whole of the Old World , (Europe, Asia , Africa, ) with surprising accuracy, including written comments that reflected the geographical knowledge of his time.
Fra Mauro‘s map is packed with pictures of amber, rubies, pearls, diamonds, manna, and “other notable things”.
To modern eyes, these monsters and lakes of honey-wine, suggest a matter of incredulity, in the same way, annotations on the map are full of doubt and skepticism.
In both India and Africa, Fra Mauro gives no credence to the wild tales of “human and animal monsters”.
Noting that none of the travelers with whom he spoke could confirm them in their stories and sarcastically stated, “I leave research in the matter,” to those who are curious about such things.”
Although, he included exotic treasures such as a lake on an island in the Indian Ocean which can turn iron into gold.
The accompanying annotation, hastily explained that he didn’t believe a word of this story, only including it, “just to do justice to the testimony of many people.”
Given that he repeated this particular tale in three different places and drew a spectacular gold lake in the middle of the Andaman Islands for good measure, his skepticism seems ambiguous to say the least.
Fra Mauro was exceptional in his approach of religious and classical authority, which was rare -especially considering Spanish Inquisition started just 20 years after the map was completed.
Mapmakers, consequently, focused on other things , rather than worrying about minor geographic details.
For Example, Medieval maps showed the location of Noah’s Ark, or discussed the depravity of pagans, and illustrated the hideous giants Gog and Magog, lurking in the far North and eagerly awaiting the apocalypse.
Fra Mauro, by contrast, took a rigidly empirical approach which departed from medieval custom, by showing Jerusalem from the geographical position in the Eurasian continent as opposed to the center of the Earth.
Another example, is how the Garden of Eden was relegated to a sidebox, not shown in a real geographic location.
Fra Mauro also criticized various classical authorities.
Like a commentator in an online forum—he prefaced his criticism by saying that he didn’t want to seem contrary but couldn’t help it that everyone else was wrong.
Noting that Ptolemy got the size of Persia wrong, mislabeled Sri Lanka, and didn’t realize that you could sail all the way around Africa.
The representation of Africa is especially important because it was based on drawings and written sources to which Fra Mauro had exclusive access.
He was aware of the possibility to circumnavigate the African continent, but previously it was considered a fact not known priory, because the Portuguese were only just experimenting the circumnavigation.
Though, Fra Mauro notates the circumference of the Earth, he concluded dismissively that it is “not of much authenticity, since it has not been tested.”
It was this robust skepticism marked a transition from Medieval Traditions towards the intellectual excitement of the Renaissance.
As a result, Fra Mauro’s map was the most accurate ever made at the time.
It wasn’t just his piercingly accurate national stereotypes; the Norwegians were “strong and robust,” while the Scottish were “of easy morals.”
He was also the first to depict Japan as an island and his representation of riches, navigation routes, and people around the world and inspired further analysis, leading up to the famous Age of Exploration and the Discovery of the Americas.
Modern interest in Fra Mauro’s map was sparked by Placido Zurla, a monk at the same monastery, who published a lengthy study in 1806.
Since then, it’s been widely recognized that Fra Mauro was way ahead of his time for his accurate geographical knowledge, willingness to challenge authority, and emphasis on empirical observation.
The map is still accurate enough to guide researchers to as-yet undiscovered archaeological sites.
For example, Fra Mauro’s contacts in the Ethiopian Church allowed him to map Medieval Ethiopia in surprising detail.
He accurately portrayed a number of geographical features such as the Awash River, mountain ranges surrounding Addis Ababa, and the Ziquala mountain and monastery (which is still there, 500 years later).
Alongside geographical features, Fra Mauro plotted ancient cities that for centuries scholars assumed never existed.
This assumption is challenged by archaeologists today, who have found unmistakable signs of past habitation in the sites that Fra Mauro indicated.
His map still acts as a starting point for research and discovery, proving more accurate than skeptical cartographers previously thought .
Fra Mauro’s Influence
The near side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned towards the Earth, whereas the opposite side is the far side of the Moon.
Lighter surfaces are the lunar highlands, which receive the name of Terrae (singular terra) from Latin for Earth.
The darker plains are called Maria (singular mare)from Latin for Sea
Named after the Venetian monk, the Fra Mauro Highlands are on the near side of Earth’s Moon ,thought to have been formed from ejecta, (debris) from the same impact which formed Mare Imbrium.
After Apollo 12 demonstrated the ability to land at a pre-specified zone, mission planners considered landings in rough, but geologically interesting areas of the Moon.
Apollo 13 was originally scheduled to land in the Fra Mauro highlands, but was unable due to an in-flight technical failure.
NASA decided to re-target the Fra Mauro Highlands for the Apollo 14 mission landing, as it was regarded as more scientifically interesting than the originally planned site the landing site.
There, Apollo 14 had the objective of sampling ejecta to gain insight into the Moon’s geologic history.
Serving as a landing site , it was chosen, and the crater served as a ‘natural drill hole’ to allow the astronauts to obtain samples of features close in proximity such as Imbrium ejecta, which provided insight into the composition of material deep inside the formation.
