Fra Mauro Map Completed in Venice

1459

The Camaldolese monk Fra Mauro finished the most detailed and geographically accurate world map of the entire medieval period, incorporating the latest Portuguese African discoveries and Marco Polo's Asian geographical data. The circular planisphere, nearly two meters across, depicted the known world with extraordinary precision and remarkable openness to non-European sources. It was the culmination of medieval cartography and the essential starting point for the age of modern mapping.