Free Essays: A Mapmaker’s Dream :: mapmaker

16th Century map out of the World In James Cowans A Mapmakers Dream, a 16th degree centigrade roman monk vicariously travels the founding without truly leaving the confines of his monastery. The monk, named Fra Mauro, learns of the military man through stories told by a mixing of travelers. With his newly acquired scholarship of the world, Fra sets out to chart the lands that were, at that time, still existence discovered. From these stories, Fras perfect map, 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 word that he would be building a map of the new world. Quick response from seasoned explorers from all corners of the world would soon become available 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 i ntense descriptions of the people visiting him, Fra helps to put an excellent image of his visitors into the readers head. He describes one sailor as still having sea flavour hanging in his beard, while describing a merchant as bone-weary and mothy from his merchants trail. The stories he learns from these men in like manner paint a great mental image as to what Fra is thinking and feeling. From these rendezvous with travelers, the line of a geographical map is built, but unlike the conventional mapmakers of the time, Fra was non 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 non of highest reliability, they are reflective of the perception of a typical 16th century person. Two of his most interesting stories are the story of the essence of the momma princess that he discusses with the scholar and the tale of the one-eyed, one-armed Cyclopedes that he learns from the Franciscan monk. Fra also delves into the renaissance occurring between these same 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.