Mappæ Mundi
The Catalan Atlas
The most beautiful map of the Middle Ages.
- Map
- The Catalan Atlas
- Mapmaker
- Abraham Cresques (attributed), Majorca
- Date
- 1375
- Held by
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
Made on Majorca in 1375, most likely by the Jewish master Abraham Cresques, the Catalan Atlas is the loveliest map the medieval world produced — a blaze of gold, ultramarine, and vermilion. Camel caravans cross the Sahara toward Mansa Musa of Mali, enthroned with a golden nugget as the richest man on Earth; galleys ply the seas; one of the earliest compass roses spreads its rays across the water. Where sacred maps looked to heaven, this one looked out along the trade routes of a connected world.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain map held by Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris — the work is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on archival cotton-rag or textured laid stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed and linen-backed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our maps cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans in existence, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the sea monsters, the tiny place-names, the burin lines — on stock made to outlive its owner.
