About the Michael of Rhodes Project

The Michael of Rhodes manuscript was lost for 400 years until it resurfaced in 1966 and again in 2000, when it was made available to the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology for study. For more information see history of the manuscript. The goal of the Michael of Rhodes project, hosted by the Dibner Institute, is to make Michael's work widely available to the public, to students and to scholars for the first time through this web site and the publication of a scholarly edition of the manuscript.

The project is directed by Dr. Pamela O. Long, an independent historian of Medieval and Renaissance science and technology, Dr. David McGee, Research Director of the Burndy Library, and Dr. Alan M. Stahl, Curator of Numismatics at Princeton University.

An international project team has been at work since 2003, studying the subjects covered in the manuscript: mathematics, astrology, time-reckoning, navigation and shipbuilding.

One result of their work is this Web site, created in conjunction with WGBH Interactive, Boston, to whom much credit is due.

Another outcome is the publication by Pamela O. Long, David McGee and Alan M. Stahl (eds.) of The Book of Michael of Rhodes: A Fifteenth-Century Maritime Manuscript. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009). Volume One of the edition contains a facsimile of the manuscript. Volume Two contains a transcription and translation. Volume Three contains scholarly essays about Michael, his manuscript, and the subjects that were so important to him.

The Michael of Rhodes project has been generously funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 0322627), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant No. RZ-50047-03).

The project also has been generously supported by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Burndy Library, the Dibner Fund, and the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology.

Any opinions, views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, or the project's other supporters.

Michael of Rhodes Project Team

Dieter Blume is Professor of Medieval Art History at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany.

Mauro Bondioli is an independent scholar and nautical archaeologist and a leading authority on early Venetian shipbuilding.

Piero Falchetta is curator of maps and special projects at the Marciana National Library in Venice.

Raffaella Franci is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Information at the University of Siena.

Pamela O. Long is an independent scholar and a prize-winning author on science and technology in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

David McGee is a historian of science and technology and Research Director of the Burndy Library, which is associated with the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology.

Franco Rossi is a noted paleographer and Vice-Director of the State Archives of Venice, as well as Director of the State Archives of Treviso.

Alan M. Stahl is a noted Venetian historian and Curator of Numismatics at Princeton University.

Faith Wallis is a Professor in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, and is an authority on medieval chronology and calendars, and medieval medicine.