ESCHATOLOGY IN THE CATALAN MAPPAMUNDI Katrin Kogman-Appel
[email protected] Department of the Arts Ben-Gurion University of the Negev POB 653 Beer Sheva, 84153 ISRAEL 1 The Jewish Mallorcan mapmaker Cresques Abraham is associated with several cartographic works;1 he is also known from abundant documentary evidence, which has been studied in detail by Jaume Riera i Sans, Gabriel Llompart i Moragues, and Jocelyn Hillgarth.2 These sources not only shed light on his life, his relationship to his patrons, the King and the Crown Prince of Aragon, but also suggest, as Riera i Sans first pointed out, that he is to be identified with “Elisha ben Abraham Bevenisti, known by the name Cresques,” the scribe and illuminator of the so-called Farhi Bible (1366–1383), one of the most celebrated of the extant Hebrew Bibles. This observation can be supported by art-historical study.3 From the Bible’s 1 In general Cresques’ workshop is associated with the production of portolan charts; literature on this cartographic genre is abundant and listing it all goes beyond the framework of this short paper; for recent surveys, see Ramon Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes. La representació medieval d’una mar solcada (Barcelona: Lunwerg Editores, 2007), chap. 5 (this book also contains a translation into English); L’âge d’or des cartes marines. Quand l’Europe découvrait le monde, exhibition catalogue (Oct. 2012–Jan. 2013),ed. by Catherine Hofmann, Hélène Richard, Emanuelle Vagnon (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2012). Both these works offer extensive bibliography on portolan charts. 2 Jaume Riera i Sans, “Cresques Abraham, jueu de Mallorca, mestre de mapamundis i de brúixioles, in L’Atles Català de Cresques Abraham (Barcelona: Diàfora, 1975), pp.