Secrets of South Asia from Fra Mauro (1459) to Later Maps
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14701216 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zoltan A Simon (Independent Scholar / Red Deer / AB / Canada, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 263-287 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0317-7173 • E-ISSN: 1911-9925 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/cart.52.3.4201 |
| OpenAlex | W2755000417 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
This evaluation of Fra Mauro's world map is due to coincidence. After studying Marco Polo's route in Asia for a decade, in early 2016, I discovered Professor Piero Falchetta's important book about the subject, which every major library should have. Considering his 2,921 entries, one may assume that Falchetta has identified about 90% of Fra Mauro's place names. Our aim was to add about another 3%, including some proposed revisions. Myanmar, Thailand, Central Asia, and China offered many new cartographical fix points. Some of these are confirmed by the identifications and conclusions of the Thai scholar Thavatchai Tangsirivanich. The accuracy of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea on Fra Mauro's map invites a map-maker to trace their shorelines onto vellum and overlay it on a modern map of Eurasia in the Mercator projection. This methodology may seem too simple, but such visual comparison yields invaluable conclusions, including a table of geographical points with true latitudes and longitudes compared with those obtained from Fra Mauro. Many maps from past centuries are compared with his across South Asia from Turkey to Vietnam
Archaeology · Art · Art history · Cartography · Geography · Humanities · Mercator projection · Parchment · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Historical Geography and Cartography · History · Philippine History and Culture
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |