My daughter has been studying Italian, but had not been to Italy. A wicked cheap flight brought us to Venice, arriving at dusk last night.
The next morning, we set out the Correr Museum, where I hoped to find Fra Mauro's Mappimundi. The monk lived on an island off Venice at the Monastery St Michele. Consulting texts from antiquity and asking visitors to Venice (1) about their travels, Mauro assembled a remarkable accurate map for the early 1450s (2). The map is oriented with south at the top, as the convention of north at the top had not yet solidified.
Down a corridor, at a dead end in the museum, we found the map. It was fascinating checking out various parts of the map. An interactive display nearby had videos and the capacity to enlarge parts of the map. I totally geeked out for about an hour, while my daughter waited (patiently) for me to tire of the details. At the gift shop, I was excited to buy a reproduction of the map. "Everybody asks for that, but we don't sell them," came the reply.
We also visited the Doge's palace and St. Mark's Basilica. Unlike in the summer, you can just show and go at this quiet time of year.
(1) Venice was the center of trade between the East and Europe through the end of the 1400s. As such, traders from distant ports (including Arab traders who had visited the far east) were frequent visitors to Venice.
(2) Given the description on the map, Mauro made the map before the Fall of Constantinople in May 1453 (a).
(a) Called by the Ottomans "The capture of Stamboul."
Rialto Bridge without a mob of people. View from a vaparetto.
Walking in Venice
Detail, Iberian Penninsula & British Iles
Jerusalem is not the center, bit slightly west of center
The Mappamundi
Detail of the Mediterranean Sea
End of an era: The last Doge leaves the palace as Napoleon's troops advance in 1797, ending 1,000 years of the Serrenisimo (most serene) Venetian Republic. Artist's rendering from the late 1800s.
Mosaic at St Mark's Basilica
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