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WonderIlluminated atlas fact

The Catalan Atlas, made in Majorca around 1375, is a world map painted on six parchment leaves. It combines accurate sea charts of the Mediterranean with astronomy, rulers, trade caravans and travellers' tales, illuminated in gold and colour.

Catalan Atlas

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The story behind the card

It is usually attributed to Cresques Abraham, a Jewish mapmaker who led the Majorcan school of chartmaking, and his workshop. The first leaves hold a calendar and a picture of the cosmos; the map itself runs from the Atlantic to China. Its coastlines follow portolan charts, the practical sea charts drawn from sailors' compass bearings, and it contains the earliest known compass rose on such a chart. In West Africa it shows Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, holding a piece of gold, with a caption calling him the richest and noblest king of the region because of the gold found in his lands. The atlas was in the library of King Charles V of France by 1380 and is now kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

Türkçe oku
Katalan Atlası, 1375 dolaylarında Mayorka'da altı parşömen yaprak üzerine resmedilmiş bir dünya haritasıdır. Akdeniz'in doğru çizilmiş deniz haritalarını gökbilimle, hükümdarlarla, ticaret kervanlarıyla ve gezgin anlatılarıyla birleştirir; altın ve renkli boyalarla süslenmiştir.

Atlas genellikle Mayorka harita okulunun önde gelen adı olan Yahudi haritacı Cresques Abraham'a ve atölyesine atfedilir. İlk yapraklarda bir takvim ve evrenin bir tasviri yer alır; asıl harita Atlas Okyanusu'ndan Çin'e kadar uzanır. Kıyı çizgileri, denizcilerin pusula yönlerine dayanarak çizilen pratik deniz haritaları olan portolanlardan alınmıştır; bu tür bir haritada bilinen ilk pusula gülü de buradadır. Batı Afrika'da, elinde bir altın parçası tutan Mali İmparatorluğu hükümdarı Mansa Musa görülür; yanındaki yazı onu, topraklarındaki bol altın sayesinde bölgenin en zengin ve en soylu hükümdarı olarak tanıtır. Atlas 1380'de Fransa Kralı V. Charles'ın kütüphanesindeydi; bugün Paris'teki Fransız Ulusal Kütüphanesi'nde (Bibliothèque nationale de France) korunuyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Catalan Atlas
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