Mapping a Holy Quasi‐Island: Mount Athos in Early Renaissance Isolarii

Mount Athos, the third finger of the Chalkidikē peninsula in northern Greece and a self‐governing monastic enclave for more than a thousand years, is a striking feature in Renaissance island books. In early isolarii it usually appeared in a round insular shape featuring four main monasteries—a representation that bears no resemblance to reality. Scholars have tended to dismiss these representations of Mount Athos as rudimentary and inaccurate. This article offers a re‐evaluation of the maps in their context, interrogating them in their cultural specificity and as complex visual artefacts. As part of a long manuscript tradition, these maps were liable to change over time and according to the geographical contexts in which they were copied. This approach leads to the suggestion that rather than being representations of reality, isolarii maps of Athos were intended mainly as mnemonic and moral devices for self‐edification.