Aurora’s Map-Themed Fountain Pens

Product image from the Aurora web site showing the Fra Mauro pen and accompanying bottle of ink. Both are sitting on top of a reproduction of the Fra Mauro map.
Aurora Pen

I’m as much a fountain pen nerd as I am a map nerd, but I somehow only found out just now that Italian pen company Aurora has been releasing a collection of antique map-themed fountain pens. Each is named after a famous mapmaker, with five planned and two announced so far: the Tolomeo (i.e. Ptolemy) in 2024 and the Fra Mauro last year. Your guess is as good as mine as to who the next three will be named after. (The Aurora Instagram account seems to be the one to watch, as it’s more active than other channels.)

Only 680 of each are being made, so these are limited editions. The top and bottom finials represent an armillary and a compass rose, respectively; the trim is silver, the bodies are cellulose acetate, and the nib is 18k gold. The pens use a piston-filling mechanism.

These are not the first map-themed pens I’ve encountered, but they’re certainly the most expensive, with prices somewhere around 1,400 euros (VAT included) at the various online pen stores I’ve checked at. If they’re still in stock, that is.