CATALAN WORLD MAPS 41 



kingdom in the closing years of the century. Jafuda submitted 

 to force and became a Christian in 1391, receiving the name of 

 Jaime Ribes, but his position was not improved thereby, and 

 he left Palma for Barcelona. Here he continued his work, in 

 increasingly difficult circumstances, until finally he accepted 

 the invitation of Prince Henry of Portugal to take up his 

 residence in that country, where he instructed the Portuguese 

 in cosmography and the making of charts. This link between 

 the Majorcan school and the beginning of Portuguese overseas 

 expansion is of obvious significance. 



The patrons of Cresques, King Peter III of Aragon and his 

 son, in addition to their scientific interests, were keenly in- 

 terested in reports of Eastern lands, in relation to their forward 

 economic policy, and were at special pains to secure manu- 

 script copies of Marco Polo's 'Description of the world', the 

 travels of Odoric of Pordenone, and, w^hat may surprise the 

 modern reader, the Voyage of Sir John Mandeville. Though 

 fabulous in part, Mandeville's book has a scientific background. 

 He was quite sound, for example, on the sphericity of the 

 earth; as he says 



''. . . who so wold pursue them for to environ the earth who 

 so had grace of God to hold the waye, he mighte come right 

 to the same countreys that he were come of and come from 

 and so go about the earth . . . fewe men assay to go so, and 

 yet it might be done."^ 



The title of the atlas shows clearly the spirit in which it was 

 executed and its content: "Mappamundi, that is to say, image 

 of the world and of the regions which are on the earth and of 

 the various kinds of peoples which inhabit it." The whole 

 consists of twelve leaves mounted on boards to fold like a 

 screen; four are occupied by cosmographical and navigational 

 data, the remaining eight forming the map. Each leaf is 

 69x49 cms., so that the whole is approximately 69 cms. X 

 3.9 metres. These proportions are of some significance, for 

 they have undoubtedly restricted the cartographer in his por- 

 trayal of the extreme northern and southern regions. This was 



iMandeville, Sir J., 'Voiage', Oxford, 1932, p. 247. 



