ABSTRACT
A deep dive into the fifteenth century’s oceanic histories, the authors offer a relational study of the Venice lagoon and the Indian Ocean through the cartographic visualizations of the Venetian monk Fra Mauro who created the Mappa Mundi map. The authors demonstrate why the longue durée of the maritime past is necessary to understand global climate interconnectedness today. The accounts of Marco Polo, Niccola Conti, and Ludovico Varthema provide markers in the complex interwoven understandings of forgotten ecologies and contemporary coastal precarity.
