Renaissance Shipping News

MIT's Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology has received two grants totaling $425,000 to create a book and educational Web site about a rare manuscript. The document was written by Michael of Rhodes, a 15th-century Venetian mariner, and an anonymous owner has given the Dibner Institute exclusive access to it for historical study.

The manuscript is a 440-page record of Michael's travels and shipping knowledge, and it is notable for its treatise on building Venetian galleys. This treatise is the earliest known detailed European document on naval architecture. The manuscript also includes astrological tables, instructions on how to enter Venice, and sections on how to solve commerce-related algebra problems. According to Dibner Institute research associate and project coordinator David McGee, this collection of diverse information related to seafaring offers an exceptional early example of "the interrelationship of science and technology in the life of an ordinary man."

The three-year grants, given by the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, will support an international team of about 10 experts on Venetian history, shipbuilding, 15th-century Italian language, and art history. Over the next year, the team will transcribe, translate, and write explanatory essays on the text. This material will then be incorporated into a three-volume publication that could go to press by 2006. Next year, the team will start working with public-television affiliate WGBH Interactive in Boston to create a Web site based on the manuscript for students and the general public.