The text of this codex was written by Cristoforo Buondelmonti (1386-c. 1430), an Italian monk and traveler, and a pioneer in promoting first-hand knowledge of Greece and its antiquities throughout the Western world. He is the author of two historical-geographic works: the Descriptio insulae Cretae (1417) and the Liber insularum Archipelagi (1420). The latter was dedicated to Cardinal Giordano Orsini.
This manuscript contains 32 maps. The one on folio 22, shown here, represents Constantinople: one can see the city walls, the river Lycus, Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, the Imperial Palace of Blachernai and the columns of Constantine and Theodosius. The Genoese district of Pera is shown at the top.
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