The Mallorcan School of Cartography

Few people must know about the extraordinary cartography work that was carried out in Mallorca in the XIV century. The Catalan Atlas, considered to be one of the most ancient, perfect and complete world cartography, is attributed to the Mallorcan Cresques family. The Atlas was produced between 1375 and 1380 ordered by King Charles V and is preserved in the National Library in Paris.

The Mallorcan cartography is characterised by the stylistic functional graduation, conditioned by the objective of each nautical chart; for example, some contained commercial as well as the maritime information, with political and economic details, and others simply maritime information.

The maps carried out by the Mallorcan School of Cartography are preserved in numerous museums and collections in Europe and America. Although the initial idea of the composition of the maps has been attributed to Ramon Llull, it is possible to situate their origin amongst the Jews, Arabs or Italian emigrees, resident on Mallorca in that era.

The National Library in Paris offers a very interesting virtual visit to the Catalan Atlas. On Mallorca a replica of the Catalan Atlas can be seen in the March Library.

More information about Cartografia Mallorquina

Date of publication: 22/02/2000

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