The Catalan Atlas - A Medieval Marvel 

Been a Spaniard. It is great and sad that you are able to show the history of Spain this wonderful way. How about the Almogavares?.

The warriors you mean?

10:08 why is it 12 tribes of Egypt when they call it Babylon? 19:23 Taprobané = seleucid/graecoindian rendition of 'Dvipa Ravana' island of (King) Ravana (probably Ceylon)

This video is amazing! What if the Catalan Atlas isn´t real at all? For 14th, I don´t know.

@@DonRubinjo well they kept updating the map - you can see variants from the 16th cen

I love this comment - truly something to think about. Even in todays world there are people that have experiences like this.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. Saint Augustine

@@drzarkov39 Incredible quote - shared this morning on twitter and facebook

@@FlashPointHx I'm old enough to have grown up before the internet. I used to consume every atlas I found. Historical atlases showing the development of the world, regional atlases of demographics in my home state of Victoria, Australia, specialist atlases on all sorts of subjects. Just before the internet, in 1995 I lashed out to buy a damaged Times world atlas: comprehensive edition. Today I still look at maps and videos on maps like this one. So thanks for making the video.

@@Dave_Sisson wow - someone more into maps than I am. Happy that you liked the video!

interesting - some others who are Catalan who have commented here, said it was a bit difficult for them to read

@@FlashPointHx Mostly because the font I think, as I catalan myself, pausing the video it's quite readable.

@@FlashPointHx It's difficult, but not impossible😉. As wiros said it's mostly because of the font.

@@wiros Download the map from the Wikipedia site - you can zoom down and read more

There is a catalan magazine called "Sapiens" that is giving the atlas (a real scale version) to it's subscribers and it's really cool! Cheers for the video, It help me lots to understand it!

You are so welcome! I’m happy that you liked my video and that you picked up something of your heritage

Els mallorquins feim coses bones a part del balconing XD

@@albertfuster6847 de les costums anglosaxones, quedeu-vos amb el Gin Giró i oblideu el balconing :)

@@albertfuster6847 🤣🤣🤣

Wow thanks ! That amazing praise - appreciate it

Ha! And these people eat seaweed and call it a salad

heh!😁.i cant decide which one that makes me giggles..your smartness or your ass..heh..they being naked cause it hot and humid on summer..the soil is fertile to cultivate Oleander seed which sprouted big leaves..blooming vigourously..such sight to behold..they life joyously reaping what they sow while singing 'ike ike ike'..

Yes, some of the other people have mentioned this as well.

@@FlashPointHx Ah, sorry, I gave only a quick check and didn't see! Cool video though, I found it very interesting :)

Oy vey we poor jews must have free land and treat the palistienians as Hitler treated us thats gods way

Thank you! Really happy that you liked it - especially coming from a Catalan

So happy that you liked this! It definitely means a lot coming from you my friend!

Thank you for this awesome comment - we have a Portuguese community here in the SF Bay Area and those that I’ve meet are fiercely proud of this history and heritage so I can totally understand where you are coming from. Thanks again for saying this!

This history is part of the Crown of Aragon's history. This map is usually shown in balearic Islands' schools or the catalan once, but not in the rest of Spain...

Yeah Portugal is Spain too right?

Hahha - yes sir!

In short: Early medieval period - Some dude: "this Old Roman stuff is really neat, aqueducts, big arenas, sewerage. Man could you build it, pls?" Engineers: "Yeah, you know we kinda forgot how to build this shit" Somewhere in Alexandria: "Too bad someone DESTROYED SHITTON OF FUCKING BOOKS ON SUCH TOPICS" Middle medieval period - First scholar: "dude, if I throw log into the fire, it will burn" Second scholar: "HOLY FUCK" Intermediate medieval period - Some person: "These arab dudes are really nasty but they got some cool shit from Antiquity and they are good at math" Spanish and Italian nobles shipping Arabic translates of Greek works: "I am about to start this man's whole education" Late midages-renaissance: Church: "This shit is dumb" Galileo and bunch of other scholars before 14-16 century who nobody knows and I am lazy to look for their names: "No, you are dumb. I am going to set this shit right" PEOPLE BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND that up to 3 ad Greek dudes were really smart and world shifted to regress until ~14 century. So there is no progress in history therefore it's just a Marxist bs. OH WAIT MARX WASN'T BORN YET Bacon: "I think we should build models first, experiment, prove, and then talk about how the whole world really works" Kepler: "Yeah, I think math is a good thing which you can build model with" AGAIN Galileo just COPYING ARISTOTLE: "I think we can't really understand everything in the world but we could interpret things in out human way" A BIT LATER: Newton: "Hello, I am here to kick some asses and [to invent calculus (fuck off Leibniz), the model of world gravity, come up with how the light moves etc]. And as you can see I've already done everything specified in parenthesis"

You are so welcome! Happy you liked the video and the content

We, the mallorcan people were great merchants in the mediterranean sea, we knew it very well

@@albertfuster6847 Thank you sir for enlightening me on this topic. As a lambda French guy I didn't have a single clue about how Mallorcan traders could be that precise at studying the whole Mediterranean sea and all its coasts.

And cue ancient aliens . . .

This mermaid seems like the first Starbucks logo LMAO

@@albertfuster6847 it actually could have been - this was how mermaids were portrayed in a bunch of books and inscriptions

Thank you! I find it more and more fascinating as I go along

fascinating conquest of forced religion

At the time this map was drawn Spain did not exist, neither as a reign nor as a country. The Iberian peninsula was divided mainly on four reigns: Granada, Portugal, Castile and Aragon. Is to the king of Aragon that this map was commissioned. The reign of Aragon included the Catalan Counties and hence the name of the map.

@@cadburries Spain exist as a sinonim of Catholic Iberia, so not as a country but as a imperial idea for the unification of the peninsula. The kings of leon claim to be the imperator hispaneae. Also the origin of Aragon is the Marca Hispanica so........

@@cadburries Crown of aragon not kingdom if aragon

Ha! Happy you like it - some of the others who have commented here have said the same thing

Ha!

Thank you so much! Happy that you like the video. Yes, you're right this map is a window into the mind of the medieval person on the cusp of the age of discovery. Impressive that our ancestors had that drive to go forth and explore

hahahahah!! This cracked me up

@@FlashPointHx thanks :)

And in 8:19, you are showing the wrong text. The thing you are reading is further north-east: "Tota aquesta [...] tenen gens q son embollats..."

Thats awesome ! That is exactly the reason I used the close ups

Interesting - I'm basing this off the research I came across - I don't speak or read Catalan myself

If I can get even one person to take a deeper look into this, then I'd be happy.

Amazingly well said! Love your comment - this gave me pause for thought - you're right Iana could easily be Sri Lanka. The map has secrets in plain view - that Chinese Junk for example; I had to research the Ming Dynasty after reading what you wrote. During the Ming (about 50 years prior to the creation of this map) - they had massive fleets that sailed to explore the world. Perhaps this is where the depictions arise from? And the SE Asian archipelago - that makes sense about cannibalism as well. Thank you for this!

@@FlashPointHx The large Ming fleets of Zheng He (that did reach ports in India, Arabia, and East Africa) were a few years after the creation of the Atlas (from 1405 onwards). The Ming came to power only in 1368, i.e. shortly before the Atlas was produced, and in their first years, implemented a policy of isolationism. That said, there had been trade between China and India via Southeast Asia already under the Yuan dynasty. As the map seems to incorporate quite a lot of trading knowledge about the Indian coasts, and some Europeans travelled to Persia now and then, reports from Arabian or Indian traders about Chinese junks in Indian ports didn't have that far to travel.

@@varana I thought they came a bit earlier. I have a buddy of mine that does the Hx of China Podcast. Let me ask him

btw, its called Jung not Junk, pronounce Joong

It is probably not a depiction of Sri Lanka. The location of it was already known well before in Europe, through Ptolemy who called it Taprobane. His work was not widespread at all in medieval europe, but Isidore of Seville also mentions Taprobane in his Etymologies (English translation by Barney et. al. 2006, page 286.) Since the Etymologies are among the most copied and well known books through all of the middle ages, as well as one of the most important books on geography, it seems not plausible that Cresques did not have knowlede of it. I can't tell why he chose not to depict Sri Lanka, and i can't tell either, where his information on the amazon island comes from, or why he put it in that exact location. Zheng He and his fleet only traveled on routes well known to Chinese merchants since long before. So it is plausible, that Marco Polo could have heared of such trade, although i am not familiar with that source material.

Cartman! Good to see you here as always - yes sir - I'll make more of these mini-episodes going forward.

not especially "western", history books at all.

Too cool - they had a jigsaw of this map? that must of been really cool to put together

@@FlashPointHx It was! 4000 pieces!

Wow do you remember where you bought it? I’d love one

@@lauragranger9813 Hi, sorry for my late reply! I was living in Italy at that time. I just walked into a toy shop and bought it. Unfortunately, I don't remember who the maker was.

You are so welcome! I’m happy that you enjoyed the content and that you learned about this incredible map. Like you said it is a snapshot of the mindset of the time.

You're so welcome. A five hour narrative ? Wow that would be a feat to create and listen to =)

Nice!! I love hearing that my videos get people more interested in history. I'll keep up the videos on my end. Take care!

I agree - happy that you liked the video as well!

I know right. . . years to make the map

will do!

you can never stop learning

And in a relatively short order. In 150 years there would be world empires

Thank you so much! I put a lot of time and effort into making these videos. I appreciate that you enjoyed them so much. I definitely intend on keeping this going.

Thanks! Happy that you liked it!

Happy that you liked this! I'm a huge fan of maps

Thanks - I agree, this was a snapshot into the mindset of the time.

Thank you so much!!

Thanks ! Let me know what you think of the other videos!

awesome to hear!

You’re welcome!

Nice!

Happy that you liked it !

You are so welcome!

Will do ! Happy that you liked it!

awesome - Happy that you liked it

Send me a link to your paper

Thanks!

Really happy that you liked my video so much!

wow - thats like a day of watching my content on youtube - impressive!! More to come!

@@FlashPointHx I hope so! Just wanted to say how impressive the quality of your vids became as they improved during the span of the last three years. Let's hope your sub count will reflect that soon enough!

Thanks!!

Thank you!

You are very welcome

Welcome aboard!

My pleasure - happy that you liked it

thanks~!

Thanks !

You're so welcome!!

My pleasure !

Happy to hear this!

Yeah I was equally fascinated. I've seen bits of this map my entire life - to have it all in one place is just awesome

Glad you enjoyed it! Love this map!

I'm so happy that you liked it!

I agree. The background music is well chosen. I've saved this for future reference.

Thank you!

If time permits. I will be doing a series on the discovery of the new world and I'm sure there will be a few maps that will come up!

I've always wanted to go there - heard its a really party stop these days

Thanks!

Thanks !!

thank you! I wonder - when you see a map like this does it make you think of all those before you who shared a desire to determine what lies beyond the horizon?

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thank you! Really happy that you liked it!

youre welcome!

Good to have you onboard

Hey thanks! Happy that you liked it!

Thank you - appreciate that!

will do

You're so welcome!

will do

Thank you!

@@FlashPointHx my pleasure. I would love to see details about each area say eastern europe, anatolia, middle east and so on

Always been a pastime of mine - I feel that history and geography are intimately linked

thanks!

Think you are right. Funny how even such a distorted map, there is a bit of truth

Sorry, my phone has episodes of manic autocorrect.

Love that you like the video! It was a lot of fun to make this. I’m really happy how much people really like it. You’re right, we all a lot to the intrepid few who are willing to go out and discover this for everyone else.

thanks!

If I can get even a few people interested in history - it makes the journey worth it

Thank you!

Appreciate that!

You're welcome! Happy that you enjoyed my video

@@FlashPointHx well, I had attended an exhibit once where the Catalan Atlas was displayed and, while it was carefully curated, your video gave me a deeper insight on the pivotal historical relevance of this map and understanding of the period, secular-mythological clashing forces shown across the map, and dozens of "Aha!" moments. You show that RU-vid can be much more than cat videos (although those are cute too!)

@@aguerrero I'm so jealous - you got to actually see this map in person. As for cat videos - I live in the Bay Area and every year in Oakland they have the international RU-vid Cat video festival. Its been sold out for the past 7 years!

Happy that you liked it!

Good point - you can seen (at least in the European aspect of the map) a snapshot of the politics of the time.

@@FlashPointHx As a Bulgarian, I couldn't help but notice a tiny detail - the atlas does contain a flag that is presumably the one of the medieval Bulgarian kingdom (as evident by other maps), but it's right next to a fold, so the gold paint has almost entirely been scratched off and you can barely see the flag's contours. In copies of the atlas, it's been replaced with a blank or silver flag.

There is a video on RU-vid, it is in French of the Catalan atlas. Take a look at that one - it doesn’t have as many map creases as the one I had access to. I think they were able to do their video based on the map that is in Paris. Perhaps the Bulgarian flag is there

@@FlashPointHx Thanks, I'll make sure to check it out. However, I've examined all three maps attributed to Cresques (the Catalan atlas as well as the maps housed in Paris and Naples) in high resolution and the flag on the Bulgarian sea coast is scratched out or smudged in all three (*insert conspiracy theme*) I've managed to find it in other maps of the time (Pietro Vesconte in 1321, Angelino Dulcert from 1325, Guillem Soler in 1385, Mecia de Viladestes in 1413 and 1423, and Battista Beccario in 1426), but it's just a funny bit of trivia that in all of Cresques' maps it's damaged. If anything, it says something about the region's dwindling importance in the wake of Ottoman conquest that flags in this section of the map were worn. Or, conversely, that section suffered a lot from pointed fingers at the war room.

@@axechop Ta mate will look into them Did not do much study on historical maps at uni but am making up for it PS GIS ruined cartography which saddens me

Thank you my friend! Need to give your podcast another shout out

maybe a latter map would be feasible

Thanks