L’artista medievale, Immaginifico mediatore tra realtà e rappresentazione nell’evoluzione della costruzione navale

In medieval manuscripts, ships representation was influenced by the interpretation of artists, who were not always experts on technical aspects regarding shipbuilding. Nevertheless, artists were careful observers of their subjects and, particularly, they paid great attention to ships, which became symbols of technological progress in the maritime context. Artists observed, interpreted, and transmitted knowledge and information about warships and naval conflicts, and thanks to their accuracy, they depicted many details of shapes, dimensions, and structures. In this way, they transported the ships into an imaginary world, a word that today can help the study of history, based not only on people and events but also on ships’ technical and technological development.