page_title: Catalan Atlas
hierarchical_section_title: Catalan Atlas
caption_attribution_description: English: First compass rose depicted on a map, detail from the Catalan Atlas (1375), attributed to cartographer Abraham Cresques of Majorca.
context_page_description: The Catalan Atlas is a Medieval world map or mappamundi created in 1375, which has been described as the most important map of the medieval period in the Catalan language, and as "the zenith of medieval map-work". Despite its name, it is not an atlas.
  It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school, possibly by Cresques Abraham, a Jewish book illuminator who was described by a contemporary as a master of mappae mundi as well as of compasses. It was in the royal library of France by 1380, in the time of King Charles V. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded vertically, painted in various colours including gold and silver. These were later mounted on the front and back of five wooden panels, with the ends enclosed in a leather binding by Simon Vostre c.1515, restored most recently in 1991; due to wear, each leaf has split into two halves.
context_section_description: The Catalan Atlas (Catalan: Atles català, Eastern Catalan: [ˈalːəs kətəˈla]) is a Medieval world map or mappamundi created in 1375, which has been described as the most important map of the medieval period in the Catalan language, and as "the zenith of medieval map-work". Despite its name, it is not an atlas. 
  It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school, possibly by Cresques Abraham, a Jewish book illuminator who was described by a contemporary as a master of mappae mundi as well as of compasses. It was in the royal library of France (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) by 1380, in the time of King Charles V. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves (each circa 64.5 by 50 cm [25.4 by 19.7 in]) folded vertically, painted in various colours including gold and silver. These were later mounted on the front and back of five wooden panels, with the ends enclosed in a leather binding by Simon Vostre c.1515, restored most recently in 1991; due to wear, each leaf has split into two halves.
caption: Detail of the Catalan Atlas, the first compass rose depicted on a map.
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