Featured below is a map known as the “Map with Ship.” The map was donated to the Library of Congress in 1943 by a retired merchant and author named Marcian F. Rossi. Marcian Rossi was born in Italy in 1870. He moved to the United States during the 1880s. The Rossi family inherited a collection of historical materials, including the “Map with Ship.” The map had been passed down through generations. According to Rossi family documents, their ancestor Admiral Rujerius Sanserverinus was a friend of Marco Polo. The Rossi family believed Marco Polo (1254-1324) may have drawn the map and entrusted it to Admiral Sanserverinus.
The “Map with Ship” was drawn in pen and ink on vellum, a parchment made from animal skin. On the right-hand side is a map of the Far East with an ornamental frame. The place names are in Arabic. Chinese characters were also written on the map. Benjamin Olshin, the author of The Mysteries of Marco Polo Maps wrote “there seems to be no way to translate these characters into a proper sentence or phrase.”
On the left-hand side is the drawing of a ship framed with decorative leaves. According to the cartographic historian Leo Bagrow the leaf design is characteristic of the 13th or 14th centuries.The text below the ship was written in Venetian Italian. The following is a translation of the text:
Marco Polo.
I. India and the adjacent islands, according to what the Saracens say.
II. Cattigara of Tartary, island of Zipangu and adjacent islands.
III. Peninsula of the Sea Lions.
IV. Islands connected with the Peninsula of the Deer situated 2 to 4 hours of difference from the walled provinces of Tartary.
Below is an enlarged image of the ship.
In 1933 Marcian Rossi wrote a letter to the Library of Congress. Mr. Rossi wrote that he wanted to know if the map was authentic; he also stated that he was interested in donating it. Mr. Rossi donated the map to the Library in 1943 after corresponding for several years with the Chief of the Division of Maps, Lawrence Martin.
Tests have been performed on the map to determine its authenticity. During the 1940s photographs were taken using ultraviolet light to enhance the text. In 2008 radiocarbon measurements were performed to determine the date the map was drawn. The tests indicate that the animal from which the parchment was produced lived between 1463 AD and 1526 AD or 1556 AD and 1633 AD.
In my opinion, an original manuscript map may have been drawn during the 13th or 14th centuries, possibly by Marco Polo or someone who knew him. The radiocarbon testing shows that the map held in the Geography and Map Division was drawn long after Marco Polo’s death. The map may have been duplicated from the original during the 16th or 17th centuries. We will never know who drew the “Map with Ship.”
Learn More:
- Ben Olshin discusses the “Map with Ship” during this webinar. Facts or Fictions: The Mysteries of Renaissance Cartography.
- Read more in The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps by Benjamin B. Olshin.
- This article is available on the subscription site www.jstor.org. The Maps from the Home Archives of the Descendants of a Friend of Marco Polo by Leo Bagrow. Imago Mundi, vol. V (1948) pages 3-13.
Comments (2)
I have read Mr.Olshin’s comments on the Map, primarily based on an early version of Yule. I will send to you, if you give me an email address, a copy of my letter to him written to him in 2018 based on his initial article in Terra Incognito, saying that much of what he believes is not believable, because other more complete versions of the text of Yule and other books do not support his arguments!, I am a student of Marco Polo and retraced his route with my family and published the report on my book in Retracing Marco Polo, published in 2025. The Library of Congress has a copy that was sent to them with the copyright and is still in its index when last I checked. Thanks, Jack Spain
Spain Jr
Mr. Spain’s comments, above, are not quite accurate. First of all, he mentions an article that I wrote in the journal “Terrae Incognitae”, which was published in 2007; he should instead look at my much more detailed analysis in my book concerning the maps, which was published in 2014. In that book, I do not state that I “believe” in anything in particular: I merely offer a translation of the texts and toponyms on the maps, and some general analysis of the contents of those documents. I do not imply, moreover, that I adhere to any particularly version of the Marco Polo narrative (Yule or any other), acknowledging that there are multiple versions. I do not use Yule or any other edition of the Marco Polo narrative to support some “argument” about where Marco Polo might have gone or not gone. Moreover, I should note that Mr. Spain himself, after an initial contact, never responded to my inquiries conerning his work or “retracing the route”. I have read Mr. Spain’s book, but he never answered the questions that I sent him related to that book.