Since time immemorial, the vastness of the seas has presented a challenge to humankind, but has also been a realm of bold dreams, undiscovered mysteries, and mortal dangers. Venturing out onto the open seas required not only extraordinary courage, but also the constant advancement of technology and science. This exhibition invites visitors to follow in the footsteps of the early explorers, merchants, and scholars who, over the centuries, sought to master and describe the vastness of the oceans. Through the pages of unique old books, as well as richly illustrated maps and atlases, a world is revealed in which the art of shipbuilding and navigation allowed mankind to broaden its horizons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrative of the exhibition is rooted in the harmonious interplay of two elements \u2013 human knowledge and technical craftsmanship, and the power of nature. The gathered works shed light on the secrets of early celestial navigation. The stars enabled the charting of maritime routes thanks to instruments that combined technical capabilities with a high degree of artistic craftsmanship, as in the case of the astrolabe or the armillary sphere. Determining position coordinates at sea at a specific time ensured safe navigation and arrival at port. The presented studies in the fields of mechanics, optics, engineering, and other technologies, as well as mathematical dictionaries, also illustrate the development of shipbuilding. Here we discover detailed construction diagrams: from precise, longitudinal cross-sections of hulls with multi-deck layouts and gun batteries, through descriptions of rigging, to the intricate, richly carved transoms of early warships. The books shed light on bold attempts to battle the forces of nature, immortalised, amongst other things, in artillery treatises, such as the one describing the operation to recover sunken vessels from the seabed using lifting machinery and pioneering, prototype diving suits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maritime craftsmanship drew on the legacy and experience of ancient mathematicians and engineers \u2013 although nobody called them such at that time \u2013 but their inventions have survived, and hundreds of years later, attempts were made to put them to practical use once again. The best example is the innovations of Archimedes, whose so-called \u2018claw\u2019 \u2013 used to raise and sink ships \u2013 and his mirror, which concentrated the sun\u2019s rays to set enemy ships on fire, became the subject of serious research and attempts to incorporate them into the arsenal of warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sea voyages are also a source of fascinating tales, where truth is interwoven with mythical fiction. We can find there both literary and mythical themes, led by the eighteenth-century edition of The Odyssey<\/em>, which recounts the sea-bound wanderings of Odysseus, the hero from Troy. We also follow the spectacular successes of expeditions, such as those led by the well-known Christopher Columbus, James Cook and Sir Francis Drake. We also see the dark and tragic side of life at sea: terrifying images of disasters and ships sinking during violent storms on the Mediterranean Sea, the dramas of shipwrecked survivors on rafts, and devastating military clashes and naval battles that permanently altered the course of the history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The routes taken by early sailors and explorers were also pathways for trade, knowledge, culture, and political alliances. The exhibition highlights their geographical scope, which spanned the entire globe. On the one hand, it illustrates the European context of seafaring: from Venetian rituals aboard the Bucentaur<\/em> galley to plans of strategic ports such as Gda\u0144sk and Riga; on the other, it extends as far as the distant Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just 76 artefacts, early printed books, maps, and atlases published between the 16th and 18th centuries illustrate how developments in shipbuilding, cartography and navigation transformed our view of the globe and connected distant continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curators:<\/strong> Iwona D\u0142ugopolska, Patryk Niemiec<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since time immemorial, the vastness of the seas has presented a challenge to humankind, but has also been a realm of bold dreams, undiscovered mysteries, and mortal dangers. Venturing out onto the open seas required not only extraordinary courage, but also the constant advancement of technology and science. This exhibition invites visitors to follow in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":37570,"template":"","wystawy_categories":[171],"class_list":["post-37569","wystawy","type-wystawy","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","wystawy_categories-temporary-exhibition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wystawy\/37569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wystawy"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wystawy"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wystawy\/37569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37572,"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wystawy\/37569\/revisions\/37572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wystawy_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wystawy_categories?post=37569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}