Charting History: Documentary Follows the Mobile Lab to Venice

25 June 2025

What untold stories lie within the very fabric of one of the world’s most famous maps? In early 2025, researchers from the Mobile Lab travelled to the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice to study the renowned Fra Mauro Map up close. A captivating new short film documents their journey.

Around 1450, the Venetian cartographer Fra Mauro completed his masterpiece: a world map over two metres square, crafted on fine parchment and lavishly adorned with hundreds of illustrations and more than 3,000 descriptive texts. The most detailed world map of its time, it broke with established conventions and signalled the dawn of a new era in cartography. Fra Mauro, notably, prioritised geographical accuracy over religious tradition: unlike most medieval maps, it does not depict paradise in the far east nor does it place Jerusalem at the centre. Unusually for European maps of the era, the south appears at the top — a choice likely influenced by contemporary European compasses, which pointed south, or by Arab map-making traditions.

Fra Mauro did not work alone. An entire team of cartographers, artists, and copyists contributed to the project over several years, drawing upon a vast array of sources including maps, manuscripts, and oral travel accounts. Through repeated revision and supplementation, the map evolved alongside contemporary geographical knowledge.

Today, researchers are particularly interested in how Fra Mauro and his colleagues revised the map over time. They seek to uncover when specific information became available to the cartographers, how it was interpreted, and how it was integrated into the map. Investigating these questions means looking beneath the surface and into layers that were painted over or overwritten — a task that requires innovative analytical techniques. Since the map is too large and valuable to be transported from its home at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, only mobile, non-destructive methods can be used.

In January 2025, a research team from the CSMC travelled to Venice to embark upon this remarkable investigation, consisting of Greg Nehring, Sebastian Bosch, and Claudia Colini from the Mobile Lab and art historian Hanna Wimmer. They were accompanied by Chet van Duzer, project partner in the Lazarus project at the University of Rochester. The team examined the map using X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) and Raman spectroscopy. Theise techniques allows researchers to study the elemental and chemical composition of writing materials, revealing which pigments were used and where reworkings and modifications occurred over time.

Throughout this journey, a crew from aha! film documented the researchers’ progress: from their delicate work in the magnificent library, to in-depth interviews and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the data analysis, and even the unusual transport of lab equipment — by boat through Venice’s canals.

This film was made possible through the generous support of our colleagues from Biblioteca Marciana, in particular Stefano Trovato, director of the library, and Silvia Pugliese, Head of preservation and conservation. Interlinea S.r.l. took care of the logistics and provided excellent service.