Catalan Atlas

The Catalan Atlas (Catalan: Atles català, Eastern Catalan: [ˈatləs kətəˈla]) is a medieval world map, or mappa mundi, probably created in the late 1370s or the early 1380s (often conventionally dated 1375), that has been described as the most important map of the Middle Ages in the Catalan language, and as "the zenith of medieval map-work". It was produced by Cresques Abraham, a Jewish cartographer and leader of the Majorcan cartographic school, who was described by a contemporary as a master of mappae mundi as well as of compasses and illuminated manuscripts. It was in the royal library of France by 1380, during the reign of King Charles V, and is still preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 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. They 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. Wear has split each leaf into two.