Free Essays: A Mapmaker’s Dream :: mapmaker

16th Century Map of the World In mob Cowans A Mapmakers Dream, a 16th century roman letters monk vicariously travels the land with protrude actually leaving the confines of his monastery. The monk, named Fra Mauro, learns of the world by stories told by a variety of travelers. With his newly acquired information of the world, Fra sets out to chart the lands that were, at that time, still being discovered. From these stories, Fras perfect symbolise, or mappi mundi as he called it, would be constructed. In this process, the boundaries of Fras world would be pushed to the limit. Being celibate from exposure to the world around him, Fra spread formulate that he would be building a map of the new world. sprightly response from seasoned explorers from all corners of the world would soon become gettable to him as many travelers would readily unburden themselves of the new and strange things they saw. These stories of the uncharted lands were told by a variety of people. With vivid descriptions of the people visiting him, Fra helps to sit an excellent flesh of his visitors into the readers head. He describes one boatman as still having sea salt hanging in his beard, era describing a merchant as bone-weary and dusty from his merchants trail. The stories he learns from these men also paint a great mental image as to what Fra is thinking and feeling. From these rendezvous with travelers, the beginning of a geographical map is built, but unlike the conventional mapmakers of the time, Fra was not only interested in the shape of lands and waters, but also in the feeling these places created in the storyteller. other than mountains, canals, and valleys, Fra Mauro learns about the culture, peculiarities, and feelings of the locations that the travelers visited. Though his sources are not of highest reliability, they are reflective of the perception of a typical 16th century person. Two of his most interest stories are the story of the essence of the mummy prince ss that he discusses with the scholar and the story of the one-eyed, one-armed Cyclopedes that he learns from the Franciscan monk. Fra also delves into the renaissance occurring between these aforesaid(prenominal) European countries and what is today the Americas. This is how Fra Mauros perception of the world was built through second hand stories told to him.