Today, there is no one who claims to be knowledgeable in the field who does not recognize the importance of Catalan cartographers, most of them Jews from Mallorca, such as Abraham Cresques and Jafuda Cresques, cartographers and compass makers, co-authors of the Atlas Català (Catalan Atlas), a work from 1375, etc.
The big problem we encounter is that the "scientific English" of the time was Latin, and since the maps were written in Latin, some Italian scholars have wanted to claim the authorship of many of these documents. For these gentlemen, Petrus Rosselli was −of course!− Italian. However, I know a couple of Catalan Peres Rossell from the same period. In this particular case of Petrus Rosselli we were lucky, because there was another portolan, with the same style, in which it read: "Petrus Rosselli me fecit ab Majoricarum Insulae". And it was possible to establish that he was Catalan from Mallorca (Balearic Islands).
Another case of appropriation of Catalan cartographers by the Italians is that of Angelí Dulcert. The Italians claimed that his name was a misspelled "Dalorto" −Italian, of course!−, which was refuted by the cartography expert Julio Rey Pastor. If they went this far, imagine what the Italians might have done with the figure of Columbus!
Julio Rey Pastor knew how to dot the i's (and even defend it from the Portuguese) in his book "La Cartografía Mallorquina" (a must-read, despite being printed in 1959). I owe my knowledge of it to researcher Jordi Bilbeny, 14 years ago. But shortly after, the secretary of the "Library of Congress" recommended it to me as a fundamental work. And, in fact, this man could not be more impartial, as he was from La Rioja. That is, he was neither Italian nor Catalan. It was hard for me to identify him with the Julio Rey Pastor from my first-year Engineering calculus book, but yes, it's the same person.
With nine years spent at PTOP, I have been able to see a good sample of the link between mathematics and cartography. Many civil engineers, good mathematicians, are passionate lovers of cartography. And Rey Pastor, a great mathematician, fell into this category. In fact, cartographers, besides being artists, had to master mathematics −at least some of them−, as projecting the sphere onto a plane requires it.
Julio Rey Pastor, before showing how to identify works from this school, tells us: "In the Periplus of the unsurpassed Nordenskjóld, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the most colorful parchments, adorned with effigies of fabulous monarchs and naive legends, written in Catalan with physical, biological, political information..., of each region, originate −the date unknown− in Mallorca, being designated as «Catalan charts»." And he adds:
"It is unforgivable that they wrote on the subject without reading Manuel Francisco de Barros, who clearly says: «Mándou vir da ilha de Mallorca um mestre Jacome, hornera mui douto na arte de navegar, que fasia e instrumentos náuticos e que Ihe custou muito pelo trazer a este reino para ensinar sua sciencia aos officiaes portuguezes d'aquella mes ter»."
(Translation from Portuguese: "He sent for a master Jacme from the island of Mallorca, very knowledgeable in the art of navigation, who made and used nautical instruments and it cost him a lot to bring him to this kingdom to teach his science to the Portuguese officers of that land.").
And he continues:
"That (c. 1415) Jafuda Cresques was acting as director of the Sagres Academy was well known to historians for over a century, although both cartographers had not been identified: the one from Mallorca and the one from Sagres. Until then, it was possible (based on great cartographic ignorance) to attribute the invention of the portolans to the Infante's school, and not to him personally; but what sense did that make when the emigrated Cresques, already seventy and tired of making planispheres for the insatiable Pedro IV of Aragon and the heir, also a cartomaniac, Don Juan, founded this school or academy around 1400?"
And he continues:
"This fact is already recorded by PACHECO PEREIRA in the following succinct form: «Many benefits have been made by the virtuous Infante Dom Anrique to these Kingdoms of Portugal, because he discovered the island of Madeyra in the year of our Lord of one thousand CCCCXX, and he ordered it to be populated and sent to Sicily for the sugar canes [...]; he also sent to the island of Mallorca for a master Jacome, master of sea charts, in which island these charts were first made, and with many gifts and favors he was received in these Kingdoms, he who taught how to make them to those who in our time live, learned»."
(Translation from Portuguese: "The virtuous Infante Dom Anrique has brought many benefits to these Kingdoms of Portugal, because he discovered the island of Madeyra in the year of our Lord of one thousand CCCCXX, and there he ordered lands and sent to Sicily for sugar canes [...]; likewise, he sent to the island of Mallorca for a master Jacome, master of sea charts, in whose island these charts were first made, and with many gifts and favors in these Kingdoms, he taught those who in our time live, learned to make them").
Julio Rey Pastor, in his book, explains why no Spanish scholar had touched the subject, referring to the unjust appropriation by the Italians: "Our geographers, insufficiently equipped, remained timidly neutral; and the bellicose Vindicators of Spanish science, which D. Gumersindo Laverde had organized into a defensive phalanx of the banner raised by the young Menéndez Pelayo, remained silent, because the great scholar had forgotten this chapter of medieval science.” I do not doubt that this is true, but I want to add another argument to the one he cites: if it had been Galician cartography, instead of Catalan, they might have addressed it.
Researcher Caius Perellada, wanting to make peace in the fight within the Institut de Estudis Catalans (IEC), called Francesc Albardaner to order with this phrase: "We must not let foreign initiative take over what is ours". That is, "let them talk well or badly, but let them talk."
The first heirs of Catalan cartography were the Portuguese. The letters between Henry the Navigator and the Mallorcan Jew Jafuda Cresques are preserved, who, once his name was changed to Jacme Ribes, founded the Portuguese School of Sagres (there are divergent opinions on who went to Portugal, but there is none on the fact that Jacme Ribes was Jafuda Cresques).
Catalan cartographers came to work in several countries: the Oliva, Prunes, Martines in Italy (Messina, etc.). At the time, cartography was first known as Catalan and then as "Spanish". The Oliva in Marseille, Johan Colom in Holland, although a little later, etc...
They traveled so much that it is not wrong to think that the remote heirs of Mallorcan cartography are the Flemish. The Dutch cartographic movement could not have appeared by spontaneous generation. There must be a foundation, and this could perfectly be the Catalan school. At the time of this explosion, the Netherlands were part of the Spanish empire; Charles V arrived in Catalonia and found with his vassals in Mallorca that they were master cartographers, some of whom, like the Martines, had emigrated to Messina. Therefore, it is normal for the Emperor to use them, and −why not?−, on his trips to Flanders, take them there and they end up creating a school: the Flemish cartographers' school, which gave rise to figures like Mercator, Hondius, Blaeu..., without forgetting the cartographer Johan Colom!
Within this scenario, there is the possibility that a Jewish cartographer, fleeing from the Inquisition, had settled in Holland −Mercator's father fits this profile, as he arrived in Holland with his wife and son, emigrating from Germany (precisely this is the profile attributed by Salvador de Madariaga to the Catalan-Genoese Columbus). "Kremer" is the equivalent in German to the Latin "Mercator". In German, this is how Mercator used the surname in Holland. This term, in Catalan, means "merchant" and this term, as well as Mercadal, are very common surnames in Mallorca.
The big problem we encounter is that the "scientific English" of the time was Latin, and since the maps were written in Latin, some Italian scholars have wanted to claim the authorship of many of these documents. For these gentlemen, Petrus Rosselli was −of course!− Italian. However, I know a couple of Catalan Peres Rossell from the same period. In this particular case of Petrus Rosselli we were lucky, because there was another portolan, with the same style, in which it read: "Petrus Rosselli me fecit ab Majoricarum Insulae". And it was possible to establish that he was Catalan from Mallorca (Balearic Islands).
Another case of appropriation of Catalan cartographers by the Italians is that of Angelí Dulcert. The Italians claimed that his name was a misspelled "Dalorto" −Italian, of course!−, which was refuted by the cartography expert Julio Rey Pastor. If they went this far, imagine what the Italians might have done with the figure of Columbus!
Julio Rey Pastor knew how to dot the i's (and even defend it from the Portuguese) in his book "La Cartografía Mallorquina" (a must-read, despite being printed in 1959). I owe my knowledge of it to researcher Jordi Bilbeny, 14 years ago. But shortly after, the secretary of the "Library of Congress" recommended it to me as a fundamental work. And, in fact, this man could not be more impartial, as he was from La Rioja. That is, he was neither Italian nor Catalan. It was hard for me to identify him with the Julio Rey Pastor from my first-year Engineering calculus book, but yes, it's the same person.
With nine years spent at PTOP, I have been able to see a good sample of the link between mathematics and cartography. Many civil engineers, good mathematicians, are passionate lovers of cartography. And Rey Pastor, a great mathematician, fell into this category. In fact, cartographers, besides being artists, had to master mathematics −at least some of them−, as projecting the sphere onto a plane requires it.
Julio Rey Pastor, before showing how to identify works from this school, tells us: "In the Periplus of the unsurpassed Nordenskjóld, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the most colorful parchments, adorned with effigies of fabulous monarchs and naive legends, written in Catalan with physical, biological, political information..., of each region, originate −the date unknown− in Mallorca, being designated as «Catalan charts»." And he adds:
"It is unforgivable that they wrote on the subject without reading Manuel Francisco de Barros, who clearly says: «Mándou vir da ilha de Mallorca um mestre Jacome, hornera mui douto na arte de navegar, que fasia e instrumentos náuticos e que Ihe custou muito pelo trazer a este reino para ensinar sua sciencia aos officiaes portuguezes d'aquella mes ter»."
(Translation from Portuguese: "He sent for a master Jacme from the island of Mallorca, very knowledgeable in the art of navigation, who made and used nautical instruments and it cost him a lot to bring him to this kingdom to teach his science to the Portuguese officers of that land.").
And he continues:
"That (c. 1415) Jafuda Cresques was acting as director of the Sagres Academy was well known to historians for over a century, although both cartographers had not been identified: the one from Mallorca and the one from Sagres. Until then, it was possible (based on great cartographic ignorance) to attribute the invention of the portolans to the Infante's school, and not to him personally; but what sense did that make when the emigrated Cresques, already seventy and tired of making planispheres for the insatiable Pedro IV of Aragon and the heir, also a cartomaniac, Don Juan, founded this school or academy around 1400?"
And he continues:
"This fact is already recorded by PACHECO PEREIRA in the following succinct form: «Many benefits have been made by the virtuous Infante Dom Anrique to these Kingdoms of Portugal, because he discovered the island of Madeyra in the year of our Lord of one thousand CCCCXX, and he ordered it to be populated and sent to Sicily for the sugar canes [...]; he also sent to the island of Mallorca for a master Jacome, master of sea charts, in which island these charts were first made, and with many gifts and favors he was received in these Kingdoms, he who taught how to make them to those who in our time live, learned»."
(Translation from Portuguese: "The virtuous Infante Dom Anrique has brought many benefits to these Kingdoms of Portugal, because he discovered the island of Madeyra in the year of our Lord of one thousand CCCCXX, and there he ordered lands and sent to Sicily for sugar canes [...]; likewise, he sent to the island of Mallorca for a master Jacome, master of sea charts, in whose island these charts were first made, and with many gifts and favors in these Kingdoms, he taught those who in our time live, learned to make them").
Julio Rey Pastor, in his book, explains why no Spanish scholar had touched the subject, referring to the unjust appropriation by the Italians: "Our geographers, insufficiently equipped, remained timidly neutral; and the bellicose Vindicators of Spanish science, which D. Gumersindo Laverde had organized into a defensive phalanx of the banner raised by the young Menéndez Pelayo, remained silent, because the great scholar had forgotten this chapter of medieval science.” I do not doubt that this is true, but I want to add another argument to the one he cites: if it had been Galician cartography, instead of Catalan, they might have addressed it.
Researcher Caius Perellada, wanting to make peace in the fight within the Institut de Estudis Catalans (IEC), called Francesc Albardaner to order with this phrase: "We must not let foreign initiative take over what is ours". That is, "let them talk well or badly, but let them talk."
The first heirs of Catalan cartography were the Portuguese. The letters between Henry the Navigator and the Mallorcan Jew Jafuda Cresques are preserved, who, once his name was changed to Jacme Ribes, founded the Portuguese School of Sagres (there are divergent opinions on who went to Portugal, but there is none on the fact that Jacme Ribes was Jafuda Cresques).
Catalan cartographers came to work in several countries: the Oliva, Prunes, Martines in Italy (Messina, etc.). At the time, cartography was first known as Catalan and then as "Spanish". The Oliva in Marseille, Johan Colom in Holland, although a little later, etc...
They traveled so much that it is not wrong to think that the remote heirs of Mallorcan cartography are the Flemish. The Dutch cartographic movement could not have appeared by spontaneous generation. There must be a foundation, and this could perfectly be the Catalan school. At the time of this explosion, the Netherlands were part of the Spanish empire; Charles V arrived in Catalonia and found with his vassals in Mallorca that they were master cartographers, some of whom, like the Martines, had emigrated to Messina. Therefore, it is normal for the Emperor to use them, and −why not?−, on his trips to Flanders, take them there and they end up creating a school: the Flemish cartographers' school, which gave rise to figures like Mercator, Hondius, Blaeu..., without forgetting the cartographer Johan Colom!
Within this scenario, there is the possibility that a Jewish cartographer, fleeing from the Inquisition, had settled in Holland −Mercator's father fits this profile, as he arrived in Holland with his wife and son, emigrating from Germany (precisely this is the profile attributed by Salvador de Madariaga to the Catalan-Genoese Columbus). "Kremer" is the equivalent in German to the Latin "Mercator". In German, this is how Mercator used the surname in Holland. This term, in Catalan, means "merchant" and this term, as well as Mercadal, are very common surnames in Mallorca.
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Author: Manel Capdevila, engineer and member of the Institut Nova Història (INH).
Author: Manel Capdevila, engineer and member of the Institut Nova Història (INH).
Article from 24-06-2006.
This article is a translation from the website of the Institut Nova Història (INH).
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