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The Fra Mauro map, "considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography",〔, discussing the copy of another map by Fra Mauro, in the Vatican Library.〕 is a map of the world made around 1450 by the Italian cartographer Fra Mauro. It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame that measures over two by two meters. It includes Asia, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Europe and the Atlantic. It is oriented with south at the top. The Fra Mauro world map is a major cartographical work. It took several years to complete and was very expensive to produce. The map contains hundreds of detailed illustrations and over 3000 descriptive texts. It was the most detailed and accurate representation of the world that had been produced up until that time. As such, the Fra Mauro map is considered one of the most important works in the history of cartography. It marks the end of biblically-based geography in Europe and starts to embrace a more scientific way of making maps, putting accuracy in front of religious or traditional beliefs. The maker of the map, Fra Mauro, was a Camaldolese monk from the island of Murano near Venice. He was employed as an accountant and professional cartographer. The map was made for the kings and rulers of Venice and Portugal, two of the main seafaring nations of the time. The map is usually on display in the museum Museo Correr in Venice in Italy. ==The map== The map is very large - the full frame measures 2,4 by 2,4 meters. This makes Fra Mauro's ''mappa mundi'' the world’s largest extant map from early modern Europe. The map is drawn on high quality vellum and is set in a gilded wooden frame. The large drawings are highly detailed and uses a range of expensive colors: blue, red, turquoise, brown, green, and black are among the pigments used. The main circular map of the world is surrounded by four smaller spheres: * The top left sphere is a cosmological diagram - a map of the solar system according to the Ptolemaic system. * The top right is a diagram of the four elements - earth is followed by water, fire and air. * The bottom left is an illustration of the Garden of Eden. Significantly, Fra Mauro took the step of placing the Garden of Eden ''outside'' the world, rather than in its traditional place in the extreme east. * The bottom right depicts the Earth as a globe. It shows the North pole, the South pole as well as the Equator and the two tropics. About 3000 inscriptions and detailed texts describe the various geographical features on the map as well as related information about them. The depiction of inhabited places and mountains, the map's chorography is also an important feature. Castles and cities are identified by pictorial glyphs representing turreted castles or walled towns, distinguished in order of their importance. The making of the map was a major undertaking and the map took several years to complete. The map was not created by Fra Mauro alone, but by a team of cartographers, artists and copyists led by him and using some of the most expensive techniques available at the time. The price of the map would have been about an average copyist's annual salary.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fra Mauro map」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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