Abbozzo del Mappamondo di F. Mauro Camaldolese
| Reference: | S42722 |
| Author | Giacinto Zurla |
| Year: | 1806 |
| Zone: | The World |
| Measures: | 384 x 386 mm |
€900.00
| Reference: | S42722 |
| Author | Giacinto Zurla |
| Year: | 1806 |
| Zone: | The World |
| Measures: | 384 x 386 mm |
€900.00
Description
Rare, early 19th century Italian engraved facsimile of the greatest medieval map of the world: the famous world map made around 1450 by Fra Mauro, "considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography" (Almagià). At the time it was the most detailed representation of the world ever produced, and it remains one of the most important works in the history of cartography, marking the new embrace of scientific method which placed accuracy ahead of religious or traditional beliefs. Strikingly, it is oriented with south at the top, recalling the Arab tradition and more specifically al-Idrisi's famous 12th century world map, copies of which Fra Mauro may have known: Europe is shown at the bottom, and Africa and Asia dominate the image, with Arabia (not Jerusalem) at the centre and America as yet missing. Fra Mauro incorporated the discoveries of Marco Polo and the Portuguese, also showing many countries later known, which the learned monk doubtless shaped after ideas gathered from the oral narratives of occasional travellers. Much of the map's novel information was lost to early modern cartographers when printed Ptolemy atlases proliferated in the final decades of the 15th century, replacing the manuscript mappamundi tradition. Fra Mauro's pre-Columbian World map is considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography.
The map is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about two meters in diameter, now hangs in a stairway in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, but is visible by entering in the Museo Correr, where it is accessible from the easternmost room upon request to the museum attendants there.
A copy of the world map was made by Fra Mauro and his assistant Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, under a commission by King Afonso V of Portugal. This copy was completed on April 24, 1459, and sent to Portugal, but did not survive to the present day.
The present edition of the map was issued with Placido Zurla's book Il Mappamondo di Fra Mauro Camaldolese (1806), the first study of Fra Mauro's map ever published and indeed the only substantial early work on the map.
Copperplate, with usual folds, very good condition.
Bibliografia
R. Almagià, Monumenta cartographica vaticana, vol. 1 (Città del Vaticano, 1944); P. Falchetta, Storia del Mappamondo di Fra' Mauro (Rimini, 2016); Nordenskiöld 52; Landmarks of mapmaking 53; Cortesao, Portuguese Cartography II, 172 ff.; Sabin 106.411; Cicogna 3323.
Giacinto Zurla (Legnago 1769 - Palermo 1834)
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Giacinto Zurla (in religion Placido), was born in Legnano, near Verona, on April 2, 1769, from Pietro, belonging to the family of Marquis Zurla, and Marianna Cezza, also noble.
His teacher was the abbot Ludovico Nachi, who began to devote himself to science, approaching the Newtonian mechanics. However, he combined these studies to those more purely theological. Became a priest and took the name of Placido, first he was given the task of teaching philosophy in the same monastery and then took the chair of reader of dogmatic theology. The Enchiridion sulla Summa of St. Thomas, published in Venice in 1802, was intended to serve the needs of his students. However, it was not to these theological studies that he owed his fame as a scholar, in some ways still intact, but to geography. The first great proof was the analysis of a fifteenth-century map present in the monastery, the world map of Fra' Mauro (1806). Zurla thus contributed to drawing attention to one of the most important works of humanist cartography. In the monastery he also found friendship with Mauro Cappellari, the future Gregory XVI. With the dissolution of the order, which in the meantime had become abbot general, first he found a way to teach at the seminary in Venice, then moved to Rome where he was appointed prefect of studies in the urban college of Propaganda Fide. From this experience originated the apologetic work on the Advantages of the Catholic religion deriving from geography (Rome 1822), republished several times and that must have given him a certain fame. He died at 65 years old on October 29, 1834, in Palermo.
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Giacinto Zurla (Legnago 1769 - Palermo 1834)
|
Giacinto Zurla (in religion Placido), was born in Legnano, near Verona, on April 2, 1769, from Pietro, belonging to the family of Marquis Zurla, and Marianna Cezza, also noble.
His teacher was the abbot Ludovico Nachi, who began to devote himself to science, approaching the Newtonian mechanics. However, he combined these studies to those more purely theological. Became a priest and took the name of Placido, first he was given the task of teaching philosophy in the same monastery and then took the chair of reader of dogmatic theology. The Enchiridion sulla Summa of St. Thomas, published in Venice in 1802, was intended to serve the needs of his students. However, it was not to these theological studies that he owed his fame as a scholar, in some ways still intact, but to geography. The first great proof was the analysis of a fifteenth-century map present in the monastery, the world map of Fra' Mauro (1806). Zurla thus contributed to drawing attention to one of the most important works of humanist cartography. In the monastery he also found friendship with Mauro Cappellari, the future Gregory XVI. With the dissolution of the order, which in the meantime had become abbot general, first he found a way to teach at the seminary in Venice, then moved to Rome where he was appointed prefect of studies in the urban college of Propaganda Fide. From this experience originated the apologetic work on the Advantages of the Catholic religion deriving from geography (Rome 1822), republished several times and that must have given him a certain fame. He died at 65 years old on October 29, 1834, in Palermo.
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