40 MAPS AND THEIR MAKERS 



of the portolan charts have already been noted, e.g. the chart of 

 AngelHno de Dalorto, and at about the same time Marino 

 Sanudo was striving to reconcile the old and the new data. 

 The completion of this reformation of the world map was the 

 work of the Catalan cartographers. 



Though the Catalan atlas is the earliest complete example 

 of its kind which has survived, it was undoubtedly preceded 

 by others of similar general design. The Medici sea atlas of 

 1351 contains a 'world' map (extending eastwards as far as the 

 west coast of India only) which resembles it in the outline of the 

 coasts and in interior details. From the nomenclature, it is 

 probably of Ligurian origin. An even earlier chart (probably 

 covering the whole 'world' originally), that by Angelino Dulcert, 

 of Majorca, dated 1339, also has points of resemblance to the 

 Catalan atlas of 1375. In view of the possible identity of Dulcert 

 and Dalorto, and the Ligurian origin of the Medici atlas, we 

 may conclude that this type of world map, though developed 

 by Catalans, originated early in the fourteenth century in 

 northern Italy, where the narrative of Marco Polo, which, as 

 will be seen, supplied many of the details embodied in the 

 map, would be most readily available. 



We know in unusual detail the circumstances in which the 

 Catalan atlas of 1375 (the date of the calendar which accom- 

 panies it) was produced and the career of the cartographer who 

 compiled it. When in 1381 the envoy of the French king asked 

 King Peter of Aragon for a copy of the latest world map (proof 

 in itself that the reputation of the Catalan school had then been 

 widely recognized) he was given this example, which has been 

 preserved at Paris ever since. It is on record that it was the 

 work of 'Cresques le juif. Abraham Cresques, a Jew of Palma 

 in the island of Majorca, for many years was ''master of 

 mappae mundi and of compasses", i.e. cartographer and 

 instrument maker, to the King of Aragon, from whom he 

 received special privileges and protection. There are several 

 references to world maps executed by him, though this is the 

 only one now known. After his death in 1387, his work was 

 carried on by his son, Jafuda, but the day of the Jewish school 

 of cartography at Majorca was already drawing to a close, owing 

 to the wave of persecution which swept through the Aragon 



