Surrounded by millennial civilisations, the Mediterranean is undoubtedly the cradle of navigation. As a result, its contribution to naval technology played a major role in the rise of European shipbuilding, which in the early modern era was to be a driving force in the development of Europe.  But it  remains largely  unknown until  today.The ModernShip project, ‘The structures of the Early Modern Mediterranean shipbuilding’ aims to enlighten this nautical space and its technical culture.