The Book of Michael of Rhodes

In the fifteenth century, a Venetian mariner, Michael of Rhodes, wrote andillustrated a text describing his experiences in the Venetian merchant and military fleets. Heincluded a treatise on commercial mathematics and treatments of contemporary shipbuilding practices,navigation, calendrical systems, and astrological ideas. This manuscript, "lost," or atleast in unknown hands for over 400 years, has never been published or translated in its entiretyuntil now.Volume 2 contains a transcription of the handwritten text in the medieval Venetian dialectof Italian and, on facing pages, its translation into modern English. Michael's book includes thefirst extant treatise on naval architecture, a 200-page treatise on mathematics in the tradition ofmedieval and Renaissance abbacus manuscripts, texts on navigation including portolans (sailingdirections), and Michael's autobiographical service record--unique for Venice in this period andnoteworthy for being the personal record of a man of non-noble status and foreign birth.

Pamela O. Long is an independent historian who has published widely in medieval and Renaissance history of science and technology. David McGee, formerly Research Associate and Head of Secondary Acquisitions at the Dibner Institute's Burndy Library, is an independent scholar, working recently with the Canadian Science and Technology Museum. Alan M. Stahl is a medieval historian specializing in Venice and is Curator of Numismatics at Princeton University. McGee, Stahl, and Long are codirectors of the Michael of Rhodes project.