It is the
first scientific atlas.
But its scale is too vast for anything of a detailed account: it
measures six feet four inches across, and in every part it is crammed
with detail, the work of three years of incessant labour (1457-9) from
Andrea Bianco and all the first coasters and draughtsmen of the time. In
general, there is an external carefulness as well as gorgeousness about
the workmanship; the coasts, especially in the Mediterranean and along
the west coast of Europe, would almost suit a modern Admiralty Chart,
while its notice, the first notice, of Prince Henry's African and
Atlantic discoveries is the special point of the whole work.
There is a certain disposition to exaggerate the size of rivers,
mountains, towns, and the whole proportion of things, as we get farther
away from the well-known ground of Europe; Russia and the north and
north-east of Asia are somewhat too large, but along the central belt,
it is fair to say that the whole of the country west of the Caspian is
thoroughly sound, the best thing yet done in any projection.
No one could look at Fra Mauro's map and fail to see at a glance a
picture of the Old World; and the more it is looked at, the more
reliable it will prove to be, by the side of all earlier essays in this
field.
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