River
Fl. Addua
Listen to the story
The Addua, the river Adda in northern Italy, runs across the map without a name and is recognised only by its course. The map lets it branch off the Lambro, wind across to meet the Brembo, and flow together with it into the Po between Placentia and Cremona. Only that last stretch is roughly right. A close look at the parchment shows the line stopping just short of the Lambro, perhaps cut back with an erasure. Ancient writers knew the river well: the Greek geographer Strabo wrongly let it rise in the same mountains as the Rhine, and the late Roman writer Sidonius called it the blue Adda.