Guido of Pisa (died 9 July 1169) was an Italian
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
from
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
. In 1119 he edited and updated the ''Geographica'', a geographic encyclopedia first created in the eighth century by the
Anonymous of Ravenna
The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' ( la, Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. Text ...
. It followed in the tradition of earlier geographies, such as Strabo's ''
Geographica
The ''Geographica'' (Ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά ''Geōgraphiká''), or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Ancient Greek, Greek and attributed to Strabo, an educated citizen ...
'',
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45.
His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...
's ''De situ orbis'', Claudius Ptolemy's
''Geography'', and the
Antonine Itinerary. Guido's book included text, as well as maps of Italy and the world as it was known to the Romans. It also included the only known text of the ''
Carmen in victoriam Pisanorum
The ''Carmen in victoriam Pisanorum'' ("Song on the occasion of the victory of the Pisans") is a poem celebrating the victory of the Italian maritime republics in the Mahdia campaign of 1087. It was probably written by a Pisan cleric within months ...
''. His map of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...
contains the inscription ''Carantano'', which is probably the first cartographical mention of the
Slovene territory.
References
External links
"World Map of Guido of Pisa, 1119 A.D."– an image from Geographica
Italian geographers
Italian entomologists
Guido of Ravenna
Year of birth unknown
People from Pisa
12th-century Italian cartographers
12th-century Latin writers
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