Map · Latin
Genoese world map of 1457, Florence BNCF Portolano 1
Mappa mundi detta genovese
Anonymous (Genoese?) cartographer
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
Compilation: Ptolemaic frame (Scythia intra/extra Imaum) combined with portolan Mediterranean and Niccolo de' Conti / Polo-derived Asian content; no observation.
Research notes
- Anonymous; Genoese attribution is conventional (flag and style). Asian content shows Niccolo de' Conti's reports as transmitted by Poggio Bracciolini and Ptolemaic nomenclature; a sibling to Fra Mauro (M027) rather than an independent witness for the Far East.
- Sampled through the Museo Galileo 'Il mappamondo di Fra Mauro' online exhibition (2021-2025), which serves zoomify tile pyramids of comparison maps by concession of the holding libraries (site states further reproduction forbidden). Tile base: mostre.museogalileo.it/images/framauro/05_mapp…; tiles at TileGroupN/level-col-row.jpg.
Why it matters
Key 1457 witness combining the classical Scythia labels with the medieval Tartar/Cathay content: it writes the Iron Gates 'where Alexander shut in the Tartars', places the Great Khan in Cathay, and keeps Ptolemy's Imaus division, showing the fusion that produced 16th-century 'Tartaria' maps.
Places named
Whole known world; Scythia intra and extra Imaum montem; Cathay (Cathaym); Mangi; India extra Gangem; Iron Gates; Indian Ocean
Who copied whom
Earlier in the chain
- World Map M027, c. 1450same tradition (stated)Genoese 1457 runs parallel to Fra Mauro