La sfera (The Globe): A Late Medieval World of Merchants, Maps, & Manuscripts

FAIN: RQ-299921-24

George Mason University (Fairfax, VA 22030-4444)
Amanda Grace Madden (Project Director: November 2023 to present)
Carrie Elizabeth Benes (Co Project Director: September 2024 to present)

Preparation for digital publication of a critical edition and translation from Italian to English of La sfera (The World), written by Gregorio Dati (1362-1435). (12 months)

The La Sfera Project is a collaborative venture to complete an open-access multimedia edition of Goro Dati’s La sfera (The World), an early-fifteenth-century textbook in poetic form designed to introduce the merchants-in-training of late medieval Italy to the cosmos, the natural world, and Mediterranean geography. Against the modern misconception that medieval people believed the world was flat, La sfera articulates European perspectives on the world in the period before the “Age of Exploration.” The project will integrate a new critical edition of Dati’s treatise, an annotated English translation, IIIF manuscript images, and a cartographic interface to visualize geospatial data, along with materials to contextualize Dati’s work. Our digital edition will showcase the richness of Dati’s treatise and manuscripts by combining text, images, and maps in ways that a static print edition cannot—thereby crystallizing a crucial transitional moment between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.