Fra Mauro's Mappa mundi - 1459

In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus and his voyage reached the Caribbean islands and allegedly 'discovered' the New World. Controversy or not, but this indeed lead to the cartographers across the globe to venture out new uncharted territories and map them in the most authentic way possible. This is because the maps post-1492 were way different from those made before them. One such map or mappa mundi was of the Venetian monk and cartographer Fra Mauro, in 1459, 33 years before the discovery of the New World. 

Fra Mauro's map is roughly today's globe (excluding the Americas, of course) turned upside down. Its quite similar to the Ptolemaic maps of the 2nd century AD or the Hereford mappa mundi, just flipped upside down. So you have the tip of Africa and Indian Ocean on top and Europe in the bottom. Fa Mauro's map is special as we see for the first time the presence of Indian and African towns much more in detail with names of a good degree of familiarity. The map also gets rid of the fictional and mythological creatures one would find on other mappa mundi and it also didn't had much of Biblical characters as well (although there were Biblical places mentioned). Fra Mauro also rejected Ptolemy's Cosmografia and flipped the map upside down, unlike other maps. 

Many of the place names are mentioned as it was pronounced by then medieval Europe, but some of them indeed have familiarity in today's world. Listing down some of these names (which are also underlined in the below attached map): 

• Cholet - Calicut / Kozhikode
• Goga - a town in Gujarat
• Campa - Champa, medieval kingdom of Vietnam
• India Prima - India
• India Seconda - possibly the southeast Asia (more specifically, Burma, Thailand and the Indochina peninsula) as it has constantly been mentioned as 'exterior India' or 'farther India' on numerous maps
• Deli - Delhi
• Ava - medieval kingdom of Burma
• Cuzirat - Gujarat
• Milibar - Malabar
• Tanna - Thane
• Chumbaia and Combait - Cambay / Khambhat
• Saura - Saurashtra
• Moschet - Muscat
• Persia - Iran
• Media - ancient region in Iran
• Lor - Lahore
• Bangala - Bengal
• Saylam - Ceylon / Sri Lanka
• Behar - Bihar
• Mesopotamia - Iraq
• Thebet - Tibet
• Babilon - Babylon, ancient site near Baghdad
• Candar - Kandahar
• Hierusalem - Jerusalem, depicted as the center of the world
• Palestina - Palestine
• Egypto - Egypt
• Adel - Aden
• Nuba - Nubia, historical region in Egypt
• Asia Menor - Asia Minor / Turkey
• Capadocia - Cappadocia, a historical region in central Turkey
• Colchis - in Georgia
• Alexandria - in Egypt
• Siria - Syria
• Damasco - Damascus
• Jordan
• Iudea - Judea, possible location of today's Israel
• Tigris - the river Tigris
• Eufrate - Euphrates river
• Libia - Libya
• Cirenaica - Cyrenaica, in Libya
• Morocho - Morocco
• Fessa - Fez, in Morocco
• Mauritania 
• Nilo - Nile valley
• Ethiopia 
• Abassia - Abyssinia or Ethiopia
• Mogadisso - Mogadishu
• Soffala - Sofala
• Bolgaria - Bulgaria
• Zagora - Stara Zagora, in Bulgaria
• Polana - Poland
• Catelogna - Catalonia
• Barselona - Barcelona
• Galicia - in Spain
• Hispania - Spain
• Gallia - Latin for Gauls, present day France
• Franca - France
• Cologna - Cologne, in Germany
• Danzech - Danzig or Gdansk, in Poland
• Lisbon
• Sardinia
• Roma - Rome
• Corsica
• Crete
• Pomerania - historical region in Poland-Germany
• Prussia
• Praga - Prague, in Czechia
• Rossia - Russia
• Moschovia - Moscow
• Permia - in Russia
• Sibir - in Russia
• Lituania - Lithuania
• Riga
• Londra - London
• Anglia - England
• Hibernia - Ireland
• Scotia - Scotland
• Norvegia - Norway
• Svetia - Sweden
• Fillandia - Finland

There are other names which are not so familiar but were the medieval nomenclatures for various geographical locations. Some of them are: 

• Phison - a Biblical river mentioned in the Book of Genesis
• Taprobana - its interesting as what would be referred to as Sri Lanka before, Taprobana is shown located next to Giava that gives it a possible location for Borneo and Java islands of Indonesia. 
• Gion - another Biblical river mentioned in the Book of Genesis
• Garamantia - Garamentes, ancient civilization in today's Libya
• Getulia - Gaetuli, ancient Roman era tribes in today's northern Algeria-Tunisia
• Tartaria - today's central Asia
• Numidia - ancient kingdom in today's northern Algeria-Tunisia
• Alemagna Bassa - lower Germany, possibly Bavaria
• Datia - Denmark, shown as an island
• Sassonia - Saxony, in Germany
• Chataio - Cathay, medieval name for China
• Serica - an ancient country placed in today's northern China
• Susiana - or Elam, an ancient kingdom along the Persian Gulf, in Iran
• Mogolistan - could possibly refer to Mongolia but since its marked on map on Indian coast, it could be a port in western India
• Fatagar - medieval kingdom in today's Ethiopia
• Hamara - a community in Ethiopia
• Diab - a village in Togo but on the map its today's Mozambique coast

The map lists down a number of African kingdoms of whose details are hard to decipher currently. Benichileb, Alma-Ona, Saramantia, Cetoschamar, Dolcarmin, Garbin, Diab etc. The largest territory in Africa was still Ethioipia which was mentioned variously as Ethiopia, Etyopia, Etyopia Occidental, Ethyopia Avstral and Ethyopia. The water bodies that the map denotes are Mare Chaspivm (Caspian Sea), Sinus Germanicus (German Sea or North Sea), Marmediteranevm (Mediterranean Sea), Sinvs Adriaticus (Adriatic Sea), Ecrvm (Aegean Sea), Pontvs Eusinvs (Black Sea), Mar Mauro (Sea of Marmara),  Mar Caditanevm (possibly, Strait of Gibralter), Athlanticus and Oceanus Occidents (both denote toady's Atlantic Ocean although Oceanus Occidents translates to Eastern Ocean), Mareindicvm (translates to Indian Sea, although its Indian Ocean), Sinvs Gangeticus (translates to Gangetic Sea, but is Bay of Bengal). 

The map was a remarkable breakthrough in the history of cartography and was based mostly on the tales of travelers, merchants and sailors. Hence, the rejection of mythical figures as they had seen none. The map was first installed at the Sacra di San Michele monastery, Turin (in Italy) till 1811 and later moved to Biblioteca Marciana or the Library of Saint Mark (in Venice) where it is currently kept. Below here is the recreation of the original map which was further recreated by Manuel Francisco De Barros Santarém, an 19th century Portuguese explorer, in 1854.