Page 28 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

OBSERVATIONS AND BELIEFS:

THE WORLD OF THE CATALAN ATLAS

Jean Michel Massing

T

JLh,. he exotic world of the
Far East, which tant-
their
state, originally a
The Ottoman
rulers.
alized Columbus in the years he spent organiz- an astronomer holding an astrolabe. The other powers are clearly symbolized by images of
air, water) are incorporated
into
elements
(fire,
ing his "Enterprise of the Indies/' is the world the next three concentric circles; then come the small power nestling between the Byzantine
of Marco Polo's famous narrative. Polo, along seven planets, the band of the zodiac, and the and the Seljuk empires, had already greatly
with several other European travelers who various stations and phases of the moon. The expanded at the expense of Byzantium. Pro-
reached China in the years of Mongol domi- next six rings are devoted to the lunar calendar gressive Ottoman control over the Balkans was
nance, before the borders were again closed to and to an account of the effect of the moon to culminate in the siege and final conquest of
Westerners in the second half of the fourteenth when it is found in the different signs of the Constantinople by Mehmed n, the Conqueror,
century, left vivid accounts of their experiences zodiac. Three more rings show, respectively, the in 1453. The Catalan map does not make much
that remained, nearly two hundred years later, division of the circle into degrees, while the last of Ottoman power. The Cilician kingdom of
the best available sources of information about gives an account of the Golden Number. The Armenia Minor is more clearly indicated.
the Far East. One extraordinary historical and four seasons, finally, are shown in the corners as Founded at the end of the twelfth century, it fell
artistic document, the so-called Catalan Atlas personified figures bearing scrolls. to the Turks in 1375, the very year in which the
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(cat. i), integrates the information provided by The world map itself combines the basic form Atlas was made. There is some interest in the
these travel accounts with medieval geograph- of a sea chart of the Mediterranean and the cities of the Near East, but the emphasis, here as
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ical knowledge and lore into a complete view of Black Sea with a traditional mappamundi. 5 The elsewhere, is on the coastal area. Egypt is sym-
the then-known world, stretching from the origin of portolan or sea charts is still obscure, bolized by its sultan, curiously shown with a
newly discovered Atlantic islands to the China but they seem to have appeared at the end of long-tailed green parrot on his arm: "This
Sea. It is an indispensable summary of late the thirteenth century. Portolan charts have Sultan of Babylon [i.e., Cairo] is great and
medieval Europe's geographical knowledge, one rightly been considered one of the most impor- powerful among the others of this region." 10
of the last great mappaemundi (map of the tant developments in the history of mapmaking, The Mamluks (1250-1517) controlled Egypt and
world) created prior to the rediscovery of Ptole- providing a relatively accurate image of the Syria until Selim i conquered Aleppo and
my's Geography in the early fifteenth century, Mediterranean based on firsthand navigational Damascus in 1516 and Cairo a year later.
and the closest we have to an image of Colum- knowledge, "a living record of Mediterranean The compiler of the prototype used by
bus' Cathay. self-knowledge undergoing constant modifica- Cresques for the Catalan Atlas had recourse to
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The Catalan Atlas was drawn in 1375 by a tion" in the interest of greater accuracy. As in different, sometimes even contradictory
Majorcan mapmaker, probably Abraham most portolans, the rendering of the Mediterra- sources. The legendary Insula de Brazil, for
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Cresques. By 9 November 13 8o it had entered nean is especially accurate: the harbors are example, which is found on various medieval
the library of Charles v of France. The map of clearly indicated and almost always placed in the maps of the North Atlantic and later gave its
the world proper is preceded by two sheets of right order, at least in the best-known areas. name to Brazil, is shown here twice, once west
cosmological information in the Catalan lan- Flags specify, although not always correctly, the of Ireland and a second time farther south. 11
guage, which reveal a mixture of ancient and political allegiances of the various towns, cres- The Islands of the Blest, located in accordance
medieval conceptions of the world: that it takes cents often being used for Muslim cities. with the specifications of Isidore of Seville in
the form of a globe or sphere or, again, is a flat However, the farther the detail is from the his great seventh-century encyclopedia, the
disk. The first of these preliminary sheets deals coast, the less reliable the rendering becomes — Etymologiae, are called both lies Beneven-
with the days of the month from the first to the portolan charts are, after all, navigational maps. turades and yles Fortunades: "The Islands of
thirtieth. To the right, from top to bottom, is a This is especially true for areas outside the the Blest are in the Great Sea to the left... Isi-
diagram of the tides; another lists the movable Mediterranean, even for Northern Europe. The dore says in his 15th book [in fact the 14th] that
feasts, and a third drawing represents a blood- empiricism of the sea chart contrasts strongly these islands are so called because they possess a
letting figure. The latter is accompanied by a with the medieval tradition of world mapping, wealth of all goods The heathens believe
long text describing the world; it deals with its which relies mainly on biblical, classical, and that Paradise is situated there, because the
creation, the four elements of which it is com- medieval lore known through literary sources. islands have such a temperate climate and such a
posed, its shape, dimensions, and divisions. In the Catalan Atlas, Southern Europe, the area great fertility of the soil." Here, too, the text
Then come geographical accounts of countries, bordering the Mediterranean, is carefully informs us, is the island of Capraria, full of
continents, oceans, and tides, as well as astro- recorded. Abraham Cresques, or rather the goats, and the Canary Isles called after the dogs
nomical and meteorological information. anonymous author of the map he used as his (Latin: canes] that populated them.
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The second sheet presents a spectacular dia- model, was familiar with the political divisions, The text adds that, according to Pliny the
gram of a large astronomical and astrological even in eastern areas under Muslim control. In Elder, "there is one island on which all the gifts
wheel. The earth at its center is symbolized by the Near East both the Ottoman and Mamluk of the earth can be harvested without sowing

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 27