A Mapmaker's Dream: The Meditations of Fra Mauro, Cartographer to the Court of Venice - Hardcover

James Cowan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1570621969 ISBN 13: 9781570621963

Publisher: Shambhala, 1996

Synopsis

     In sixteenth-century Venice, in an island monastery, a cloistered monk experiences the adventure of a lifetime — all within the confines of his cell. Part historical fiction, part philosophical mystery, A Mapmaker's Dream tells the story of Fra Mauro and his struggle to realize his life's work: to make a perfect map — one that represents the full breadth of Creation. News of Mauro's projects attracts explorers, pilgrims, travelers, and merchants, all eager to contribute their accounts of faraway people and places. A she listens to the tales of the strange and fantastic things they've seen, Mauro comes to regard the world as much more than continents and kingdoms: that it is also made up of a vast and equally real interior landscape of beliefs, aspirations, and dreams. Mauro's map grows and takes shape, becoming both more complete and incomprehensible. In the process, the boundaries of Mauro's world are pushed to the extreme, raising questions about the relationship between representation, imagination, and the nature of reality itself.
     

About this title

Review:

James Cowan's fantasy of a Venetian cartographer owes a large and obvious debt to Borges, with its speculations on geography as a construct of the human consciousness, its erudite references, and its tales of explorations into an imaginary world. Through the purported journals of Fra Mauro, a cloistered monk who actually lived during the 15th century and who, in Cowan's novel, has resolved to create a map of the world without ever leaving his cell, we learn of a race of men with one foot the size of an umbrella, about the Vatican emissary to the Mongol court,and about the devil worshippers of the land called Mosul. Over the course of the book, Fra Mauro creates a world of his own, composed less of geographical knowledge than of meditation, folklore, and books.

About the Author:

James Cowan is the author of more than twenty books, including Francis: A Saint's Way and the best-selling A Mapmaker's Dream, for which he was awarded the Australian Literature Society's Gold Medal. He lives in Queensland, Australia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1570621969
• ISBN 13: 9781570621963
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 151