Mauro probably went largely unnoticed in his monastery on an island within the Laguna Veneta (the lagoon that surrounds Venice). But his new map was destined to demand attention. It was large and round – which was unusual – almost two metres (six feet) in diameter, yet still very definitely a map and not a global representation. Most of all, he no longer showed Jerusalem as the center of the world. For the Asian part of the map Mauro took his data from the writings of Marco Polo. The rest was based on Ptolemy, or his own contemporary sea-faring charts. Mauro’s extraordinary work was completed in 1459.

The Pisana map Unknown Artist, 1290 Parchment, 50 x 105 cm Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris