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The globe of Fra' Mauro

The Globe of Fra’ Mauro, datable to the year 1450 ca., is one of the most precious – and best known – relics kept in the Marciana Library of Venice.

The work is considered one of the most important documents of Venetian cartography in the period of transition between the medieval conception of the world and the new knowledge brought by the voyages of exploration and navigation.

Looking at the globe in the centre of Norway, he recalls the shipwreck of Pietro Querini. When Querini returned to Venice he wrote a report for the Senate, in which he told the story and accurately described the Nordic communities and their customs and customs, tracing the first physical and cultural geography of the Arctic regions.

It is from Querini’s diary that Fra Mauro outlined the conjectural geography of the enormous northern regions of the globe. Beyond Norway, Fra Mauro designed territories called Grolandia, Islant, Fillandia and Permia, hypothetically extended to a few degrees beyond the North Pole, which in its representation would be located in the immediate hinterland of the great Eurasian continent. Amplifying Querini’s story, Fra Mauro imagined huge expanses of ice

Reference: Marciana Library

Interactive maps: https://bit.ly/3NTLAPT

 

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Olaus Magnus' Marine Map

Marine Map and description of Northen lands , full name Carta Marina et descriptio septemtrionalium terrarum ac mirabilium rerum in eis contentarum, diligentissime elaborate anno 1539 Veneciis liberalitate Reverendissimi Domini Ieronimi Quirini, is a marine geographical map created in XVI century by Olaus Magnus bishop of Uppsala.
 
The map is valuable because it is the first known to us that describes the Nordic countries in detail. Before this map, Scandinavia was known through maps by Jacob Ziegler and Claudius Clavus.
 
On the map, you can also see the small Norwegian island of Røst, as well as sea monsters and dried fish.