Impressive detail: Fra Mauro map

In 1459, Fra Mauro, a Venetian monk from the Camaldul order, together with the navigator and cartographer Andrea Bianco, completed work on a map, one version of which was presented as a gift to King Afonso V of Portugal. The drawing is applied to a parchment base fixed on a wooden frame. Later, copies were made, one of which was found in the monastery of St. Michael in Murano, where Mauro's workshop was located.

The creation of the Fra Mauro map was made possible thanks to the information obtained during the travels of Marco Polo. Some fragments served as the basis for later geographical maps depicting Asia. In addition, the authors were guided by the materials of Ptolemy, as evidenced by the outlines of the Indian Ocean, signed as the Indian Sea. The dimensions of the map are 2, 4x2, 4 meters. It contains more than 3 thousand inscriptions with descriptions of geographical objects. There are also many different illustrations and several large additions in the form of a small map of the Solar System, a diagram of the four elements, an image of the Garden of Eden and an image of the Earth in the form of a globe.

Fra Maur's map has become one of the oldest European maps depicting Japan (previously the islands were marked on the de Virga map of 1411). About England and Scotland, it is said here that these lands were inhabited by giants. Scandinavia is the worst represented among the European regions. The island of Greenland is referred to as Grolandu, but cartographers were not aware of America at that time.

For its time, it was one of the most accurate and detailed images of the world. During the work, the authors used expensive pigments at that time: blue, red, turquoise and others. In 1804, the British cartographer William Fraser completely reproduced the map of Fra Mauro on parchment. If you do not take into account minor inaccuracies, the copy completely repeats the original. Today, this reproduction can be seen in the British Library (London).