The Book of Michael of Rhodes: A Fifteenth-Century Maritime Manuscript, Vol. 2: Transcription and Translation - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262195909 ISBN 13: 9780262195904

Publisher: MIT Press, 2009

Synopsis

The transcription and first translation into English of a manuscript by a fifteenth-century mariner, including treatises on shipbuilding, mathematics, astrology, and calendrical computation.

In the fifteenth century, a Venetian mariner, Michael of Rhodes, wrote and illustrated a text describing his experiences in the Venetian merchant and military fleets. He included a treatise on commercial mathematics and treatments of contemporary shipbuilding practices, navigation, calendrical systems, and astrological ideas. This manuscript, “lost,” or at least in unknown hands for over 400 years, has never been published or translated in its entirety until now. Volume 2 contains a transcription of the handwritten text in the medieval Venetian dialect of Italian and, on facing pages, its translation into modern English. Michael's book includes the first extant treatise on naval architecture, a 200-page treatise on mathematics in the tradition of medieval and Renaissance abbacus manuscripts, texts on navigation including portolans (sailing directions), and Michael's autobiographical service record―unique for Venice in this period and noteworthy for being the personal record of a man of non-noble status and foreign birth.

About this title

About the Author

Alan M. Stahl is a medieval historian specializing in Venice and is Curator of Numismatics at Princeton University. McGee, Stahl, and Long are codirectors of the Michael of Rhodes project.

Review

The Book of Michael of Rhodes provides a remarkable glimpse into the individual life of a mariner the harsh conditions of his service at sea the material conditions of Venetian trade the making of knowledge in Renaissance culture and the fraught process for a vernacular author of transforming his lived experience into the written word. This collection is a marvel.

―Pamela H. Smith, Department of History, Columbia University (2011-01-01)

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0262195909
• ISBN 13: 9780262195904
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 679
• Editor: Stahl Curator Of Numismatics At Princeton University And A Lecturer In The Departments Of Classics And History Alan M