Origins
As Piero Falchetta notes, there are many geographical facts reflected in Fra Mauro map for which it is not clear what Fra Mauro's source was, as no similar information is found in other preserved Western maps or manuscripts of the period. This situation can be at least partially explained by the fact that, besides the existing maps and manuscripts, an important source of information for his map were oral accounts from travelers - Venetians or foreigners - coming to Venice from all parts of the then-known world. The importance of such accounts is indicated by Fra Mauro himself in a number of inscriptions. An even earlier map, the De Virga world map (1411–1415) also depicts the old world in a way broadly similar to the Fra Mauro map, and may have contributed to it.
The book of travels of Marco Polo is believed to be one of the most important sources of information, in particular about the East Asia. Fra Mauro also probably relied on Arab sources. This is suggested by the North-South inversion of the map, an Arab tradition exemplified by the 12th century maps of Muhammad al-Idrisi, and the detailed information on the southeastern coast of Africa, which was brought by an Ethiopian embassy to Rome in the 1430s.
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