ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The Cartographian School of Mallorca is the name given by historians to the Cartography Group, cosmographers and Jewish navigation tools operating in the island of Mallorca and Catalonia between the 13th and 15th, when Jews were deported from Spain.

Historical background
By 1231, Mallorca was an independent Muslim kingdom, after which, until 1344, an independent Christian kingdom and from 1344 was permanently annexed to the Kingdom of Aragon.

On the island of Mallorca, the largest of the Baltic islands located in the western Mediterranean, about 300 kilometers from the east coast of Spain, operated throughout all periods of Muslim and Jewish traders who have run extensive trade lives and marketed in the Mediterranean with Italy, Egypt and Tunisia and from the 14th century, in the Atlantic Ocean, with England and the Netherlands.

Toilet maps of Mallorca
The demand for cruise maps was great. Ramon Laul, a scientific man, a missionary and a Christian philosopher from the island of Mallorca, who has been wandering around the world to combat the populations of Christianity, included a marine map between the necessary navigation tools for his journeys. In 1354, King of Aragon Pedro IV ordered that all ships under his flag would be marked by two maps.

The information on which the maps were based was collected from the reports of sailors who invaded the Mediterranean basin or between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean and astronomical information. The Jewish cartographers gained particularly much knowledge due to their approach to Hebrew and Arabic texts. The knowledge of the cartography of Mallorca has gradually expanded following the expansion of the domination of the kingdom of Aragon in the Mediterranean basin in the centuries 13 and 14.

The trailers of Mallorca have developed unique caratography techniques. Their maps that received the name "Portuino", an Italian term derived from the Latin word portus, were beach navigation guides and ports focused on a defined area, such as the Mediterranean basin, the Atlantic towards the Canary Islands or towards England. The maps were very detailed and accurate and used to navigate in general and in particular to design marine paths through compass. For example, maps described in the open sea cruise routes from Nigeria to Corica, from Sicily to Crete, and Rhodes to Cyprus.

The features that characterized the port manuals produced in Mallorca are:
Adding ghosts in a compass form pointing to the north, and editing the map accordingly.
Adding a coordinal network is built on a set of ghost rehabilitation (Rhumbline or Windrose Network) that enables an accurate calculation of the distance between two points and cruise routes.
The maps were painted in different styles depending on the Jordan. Several maps contained information about commerce and navigation along with details about the political and economic situation of the region. Others only contained marine information. Unlike the usual port maps and navigators, they described not only these coastal areas also the interior of the country and also included geographical information on mountains and rivers, wall cities, local rulers, flags and symbols of kingdoms and biblicals. The training of the cartographs was made in workshops, such as the workshops of Judea Kraksk and Peer Rosel, which ensured a uniform style, reuse symbols and colors (the sea is finally coloured red, Muslim cities are marked with full colour). The maps were painted in the colors of water and were painted in gold or silver letters. Due to their high artistic level, some of them were invited as gifted and have become wanted collection details.

Famous maps of the Mallorca

The map of Angelino Dwyler
The first known map of the Aschelle Mallorca style was merged by Angelino Dolzert in 1339. It includes the entire continent of Europe, part of North Africa and some of the Caspian Sea. In the Atlantic Ocean, the regional and Kenner Islands and part of the African coasts, south of Morocco, suggesting that the area was known to the Spanish cruises and carographers at the time.

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