Commissioning and Use of Charts Made in Majorca c.1400: New Evidence from a Tuscan Merchant’s Archive

Abstract

The Datini Archive in Prato, Italy, a remarkable collection of a late fourteenth–early fifteenth century merchant’s business correspondence, includes a number of orders for charts from Majorca, one of the major chart-making centres in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. The letters give information on prices, the length of time it took to make a chart, and its destination. The archive also contains unpublished information on how the charts were packed and transported. From these sources we conclude that the charts appear to have served not only to prepare business trips, but also to embody the memory of these trips.

Commande et usage des cartes faites à Majorque au début du XV^e siècle: nouveaux témoignages issus des archives d’un marchand toscan

Les archives Datini à Prato (Italie), une collection remarquable de correspondance commerciale d’un marchand du XV^e siècle, comprennent un certain nombre de commandes de cartes de Majorque, l’un des centres majeurs de la production cartographique en Méditerranée au Moyen Âge. Les lettres fournissent des informations sur les prix, le temps nécessaire pour faire une carte et leur destination. Les archives contiennent aussi des informations inédites sur la manière d’emballer et de transporter les cartes. À partir de ces sources, nous concluons que les cartes semblent avoir servi non seulement à préparer des voyages commerciaux, mais aussi à conserver la mémoire de ceux-ci.

Beauftragung und Verwendung von auf Mallorca hergestellten Seekarten im frühen 15. Jahrhundert: Neue Erkenntnisse aus dem Archiv eines Handelsherrn in der Toskana

Das Datini-Archiv in Prato, Toskana, stellt eine bemerkenswerte Sammlung von Geschäftskorrespondenzen dar, die unter anderem auch eine Anzahl von Bestellungen für Seekarten aus Mallorca—einem der bedeutendsten mittelalterlichen Zentren der Seekartenproduktion im Mittelmeerraum—enthält. Diese Briefe bieten Daten zu Preisen für diese Seekarten, aber auch zu der für ihre Herstellung notwendigen Zeit sowie zu deren Bestimmungsorten. Das Archiv enthält auch bisher nicht publizierte Informationen darüber, wie die Karten verpackt und transportiert wurden. Die Autoren schließen aus diesen Quellen, dass die Seekarten nicht nur zur Vorbereitung von Geschäftsreisen sondern auch zur nachträglichen Dokumentation derselben dienten.

Comisión y uso de las cartas portulanas hechas en Mallorca a principios del siglo XV: nuevas evidencias extraídas de un archivo comercial toscano

El archivo Datini en Prato, Italia, sobresaliente colección de la correspondencia de unos mercaderes del siglo XV, incluye un número de encargos de cartas portulanas de Mallorca, uno de los mayores centros de construcción de estas cartas en el Mediterráneo durante la Edad Media. La correspondencia da información de precios, periodo de tiempo de construcción de las cartas, y su destino. El archivo también contiene información no publicada de cómo los mapas fueron empaquetados y transportados. De esas fuentes concluimos que las cartas portulanas parecen haber servido no solo para preparar viajes de negocios sino también para incorporar la memoria de aquellos viajes.

Keywords:

• Datini Archive
• Prato
• Italy
• portolan charts
• mappamundi
• Middle Ages
• Majorca
• Jews

Notes

1. Tony Campbell, ‘Portolan charts from the late thirteenth century to 1500’, in The History of Cartography, vol. 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. J. B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987), 371–463; Tony Campbell, ‘Census of pre-sixteenth century portolan charts’, Imago Mundi 38 (1986): 67–94 (the revised census is on the current MapHistory website); Patrick Gautier Dalché, Carte marine et portulan au XII^e siècle. Le Liber de existencia riveriarum et forma maris nostri mediterranei (Rome, École Française de Rome, 1995); Ramón Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes: la representació medieval d’una mar solcada (Barcelona, Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya, 2007); Philipp Billion, Graphische zeichen auf mittelalterlichen portolankarten: ursprünge, produktion und rezeption bis 1440 (Marburg, Tectum, 2011).

2. Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 452–63; Patrick Gautier Dalché, ‘L’usage des cartes marines aux XIVe et XVe siècles’, Spazi, tempi, misure e percorsi nell’Europa del Bassomedioevo. Atti del XXXII Convegno storico internazionale, Todi, 8–11 ottobre 1995 (Spoleto, 1996), 97–128; Patrick Gautier Dalché, ‘Cartes marines, représentations du littoral et perception de l’espace au Moyen Age. Un état de la question’, Castrum 7 (Rome, 2001): 9–33; Patrick Gautier Dalché, ‘Les cartes marines, origines, caractères, usages: à propos de deux ouvrages récents’, Geographia Antiqua 20–21 (2011–2012): 215–27; Catherine Hofmann and Emmanuelle Vagnon, eds., Cartes marines: d’une technique à une culture, 13e–18e siècle (revue Cartes & Géomatique 216 (June 2013)); Emmanuelle Vagnon, ‘La représentation cartographique de l’espace maritime’, in La Terre. Connaissance, représentations, mesure, ed. Patrick Gautier Dalché (Turnhout, Brepols, 2013): 443–503. The First International Workshop, held in Lisbon 6–7 June 2016, and the Second International Workshop, 7–8 June 2018, discussed ‘The Origin and Evolution of Portolan Charts’.

3. Patrick Gautier Dalché, ‘La carte marine au Moyen Age: outil technique, objet symbolique’, in The Sea in History, vol. 2: The Medieval World / La mer dans l’histoire, vol. 2: Le Moyen Âge, ed. Christian Buchet and Michel Balard (Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer; Paris, Océanides, 2017), 101–14.

4. The entire commercial and private correspondence has been scanned and is available on the website of the Datini archive in Prato: http://datini.archiviodistato.prato.it/www/. On the Datini documentation, see Bruno Dini, ‘L’Archivio Datini’, in L’impresa, industria, commercio, banca secc. XIII–XVIII (Atti della ‘Ventiduesima Settimana di Studi’, 30 aprile–4 maggio 1990, Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica ‘F. Datini’, Prato), ed. Simonetta Cavaciocchi (Florence, 1991), 45–60; Jérôme Hayez, ‘L’Archivio Datini, de l’invention de 1870 à l’exploration d’un système d’écrits privés’, in Le carteggio Datini et les correspondances pratiques des XIVe–XVIe siècles, ed. Jérôme Hayez, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome—Moyen Age 117:1 (2005): 121–91. A highly readable but still scholarly account in English of Datini is Iris Origo, The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335–1410 (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1957).

5. On the emergence and the structure of Florentine merchant companies, see Federigo Melis, Aspetti della vita economica medievale (Siena, Monte dei Paschi, 1962); Ingrid Houssaye Michienzi, Datini, Majorque et le Maghreb. Réseaux, espaces méditerranéens et stratégies marchandes (Leiden, Brill, 2013).

6. Four other letters from the island, however, are dated 1412–1413.

7. As in Federigo Melis, Documenti per la storia economica dei secoli XIII–XVI (Florence, Olschki, 1972); Giampiero Nigro, Mercanti in Maiorca. Il carteggio datiniano dell’Isola (1387–1396), 2 vols. (Florence, Le Monnier, 2003).

8. Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 99–100, 435–36, documents 98, 99, 101, 104. See Ingrid Houssaye-Michienzi and Emmanuelle Vagnon, ‘Cartographie commerciale et circulations marchandes à Majorque au XVe siècle’, in Centres pluriculturels et circulation des savoirs (XVe–XXIe siècles), ed. Françoise Richer and Stéphane Patin (Paris, Michel Houdiard, 2015), 27–44.

9. Julio Rey Pastor and Ernesto Garcia Camarero, La cartografia mallorquina (Madrid, Departamento de Historia y Filosofia de La Ciencia, Instituto Luis Vives, 1960).

10. Gabriel Llompart, ‘La cartografia mallorquina del siglo XV. Nuevo hitos y rutas’, Bolletí de la Societat Arqueològica Lulliana 34 (1975): 438–65; Jaume Riera i Sans and Gabriel Llompart, ‘Jafudà Cresques i Samuel Corcós. Més documents sobre els jueus pintors de cartes de navegar (Mallorca, s. XIV)’, Bolletí de la Societat Arqueològica Lulliana 40 (1984): 341–50; Gabriel Llompart, ‘Registro de los cartógrafos medievales activos en el puerto de Mallorca’, Anuario de Estudios Medievales 27:2 (1997): 1117–48; Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 486–87. The Datini account book for Barcelona refers to ‘Maestro Riba, cristiano novello, maestro di charte di navichare’ and ‘Maestro Francesco di Genova, dipintore di charte da navichare’. In a contract, Beccari describes himself as ‘Franciscus Becarius, magister cartarum navigandi, civis Janue’; see R. A. Skelton, ‘A contract for world maps at Barcelona, 1399–1400’, Imago Mundi 12 (1968): 107–13; a map signed ‘Franciscus Becharius civis Janue’, dated 1403, is kept in New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 1980.158; Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 63.

11. Pujades i Bataller, ‘Les cartes de navigation. Premières cartes à large diffusion sociale’, in L’Age d’or des cartes marines. Quand l’Europe découvrait le monde, ed. Catherine Hofmann, Hélène Richard and Emmanuelle Vagnon (Paris, BnF-Seuil, 2012), 60–67. For a critique of Pujades’s interpretation, see Gautier Dalché, ‘La carte marine au Moyen Age’ (note 3), 102.

12. ‘Ricordansa faccio Io Anthonio delle Vecchie ad Anbrogio di meser Lorenzo da Siena di quello che per me vogl[i]o facci in Maiolicha … Come la charta da navichare è fatta e ti piaccia, che sia g[i]usta e bella, prendela e mandamela e lo ghosto seque a Lucha e a me … e simile mi manda un paio di belle seste e buone e del pregio fa lo megl[i]o puoi’. Archivio di Stato di Prato, Datini (hereafter Datini) 1167, 9302300, letter/memorandum Pisa–Majorca, Antonio delle Vecchie to Ambrogio di Rocchi, 1395/12/13, fol. 1r.

13. ‘La carta … la mi mandi per lo primo buon pasagio … sia bella e buona con le bandiere’. Datini 1047, 1101324, letter Barcelona–Majorca, Antonio delle Vecchie to Ambrogio di Rocchi, 1395/12/30, closed 1396/01/14, received 1396/01/22, fol. 1r. Quoted from the first part of the letter dated 1395/12/30.

14. ‘Che la charta che fai fare per ora non sia ancora fatta sono avizato, piacierami sia bella e buona; quando sarà fatta e ti piaccia, falla riconosciere che sia g[i]usta e se ti piacia pigl[i]ala e mandamela come prima puoi la possa mandare per la nave vene sarà; e se non ti piaciesse lassala stare … E se potessi fare che nel chapo del bastone ci fosse una bussola a modo de la tua, fallo. Se non, mandala come ti pare e avizami del ghosto e daròli qua a chi dirai’. Datini 1047, 1101324, letter Barcelona–Majorca, Antonio delle Vecchie to Ambrogio di Rocchi, 1395/12/30, closed 1396/01/14, received 1396/01/22, fol. 1r. [Quotation from the second part of the letter not written until 1396/01/14]

15. In his De navigatione (New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 557, fol. 61v–62v), Benedetto Cotrugli explains how to check the accuracy of a nautical chart by the correctness of the orientation of the wind directions of the network: volendo agiustare la carta de navigare o vero cognoscere sel’è giusta … (quoted in Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 475). It is unclear, though, if Cotrugli was describing the kind of checking requested by Antonio delle Vecchie.

16. This accords with Pujades’s remark (Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 440), that ‘everything depended on the client, on the use to which he wanted to put the chart, and on the price he was prepared to pay’.

17. ‘Per questo legno d’en Antoni Daro in sul quale viene Bernat, giovane di Piero Bariera, a Ghuglielmo di Bagat, vi mando I charta da navichare con II sesti; ed è involgl[i]ata d’incerato e sugelata di vostro sugello, la qual farete d’avere, e la date a ‘Ntonio delle Vecchie, e per me li domandate, con I sua sia in questa L.4 s.4 barzalonesi per L.5 s.12 qui a vostro e suo conto, e auti ne fate la scritta bixogna e Rispondete’. Datini 886, 113527, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Ambrogio di Rocchi to Datini Company, 1396/01/11, fol. 1r. (copy in Datini 886, 113528). Bernat was Bernat Planes, whose surname is given in another of Ambrogio’s letters, written 13 days later: Datini 886, 113531, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Ambrogio di Rocchi to Datini Company, 1396/01/24). Piero Barriera (Italian version of Pere Barrera) was a Majorcan money changer. The price of the chart is given in Barcelona currency after converting the price established in Majorca in Majorcan currency.

18. Datini 1046, 315280, letter Barcelona–Majorca, Datini Company to Ambrogio di Rocchi, 1396/01/22, fol. 2r.

19. ‘Al Bucho [Leonardo de Johan] arete dato F. V aragonesi e d’Antonio Vechie auto L.4 s.4, e ponete a chonto qui tutto, e datoli la carta da navichare che per in Bariera vi mandai. Il papamundi, o charta conpiuta, che sia ch’io tengho, dite vi si mandi e nulla si chonti’. Datini 886, 113532, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Ambrogio di Rocchi to Datini Company, 1396/01/24, fol. 2r.

20. ‘Per In’ Cases acomandammo a Francesco Solanes, per chi vi mando la carta colla bossola e la sesta coperto d’incerato, vi mandammo questa [lettera] e copia per la nave del Re’. Datini 886, 113532, letter Majorca–Barcelona, 1396/01/24, fol. 5v; and ibid., 113531, letter Majorca–Barcelona, 1396/01/24, fol. 5v.. The same reference appears in two copies of the same letter; commercial letters were often sent in duplicate to be sure that at least one would reach its destination.

21. ‘E ditto dì per Bernardo di Barera avemmo la mia charta che mi mandaste, la quale è molto bella e g[i]usta e contentomene’. Datini 1047, 1101325, letter Barcelona–Majorca, Antonio delle Vecchie to Ambrogio di Rocchi, 1396/02/08, fol. 1r. Antonio thanks Ambrogio again in his next letter, dated 2 March (ibid., 1101326).

22. ‘Antonio de le Vechie de’ dare a dì 12 di dicie[n]bre [1395] prestò gli abiamo contanti p**** di I^a carta da navichare L.- s.8 d.-. A dì 27 detto per chonpimento di L. 4 s. 5 per I^a charta da navichare ebe Guilem Solieri gli mandiamo per Bernat Planes, giovane di Piero Bariera, L. 3 s. 17. Mesi a uscita a c.196’. Datini 1027, Quaderno di balle B, Majorca, 1395, fol. 96v.

23. Pujades i Bataller, Cartes portolanes (see note 1), 440 n.181. Guillem Soler is mentioned in a document of 1368 as magistro instrumentorum navigandi, which Pujades takes to be the Latin equivalent of mestre de cartes de navegar. See M. Baig i Àleu, ‘Un nuevo documento sobre Guillem Soler y la cuestión de la cartografia Mallorquina’, Lull, 24 (2001): 587–603. Pujades i Bataller, La cartografia medieval i Barcelona. L’adquisició d’un fragment de Guillem Soler, Barcelona, Ajuntament de Barcelona-Institut de Cultura (Museu d’Història de Barcelona, 2015).

24. Catalan Atlas, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Espagnol 30. This unsigned atlas is only partly linked by the documentary evidence to Cresques Abraham: see Ernest T. Hamy, ‘Cresques lo Juheu. Note sur un géographe juif catalan de la fin du xiv^e siècle’, Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive (Paris, 1891): 221; Jaume Riera Sanz, ‘Cresques Abraham, Judio de Mallorca, maestro de mapamundis y de brújulas’, in El Atlas Catalàn de Cresques Abraham. El primer atlas del Mundo. Primera edición completa en el sexcentésimo aniversario de su realización, 1375–1975 (Barcelona, 1975), 18.

25. ‘E di’ a Filippozo [Soldani] che io arò la carta vole: ònne 2 ale manni che sarano conp[i]uta fra 8 dì. L’una costerebe F. 16 in 18; l’altra costerebe F. 10 in 12. E ciaschuna è bella. Digli m’avisi quella vole: o la di più danari, o la di meno’. Datini 886, 901294, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Luca del Sera to Datini Company, 1395/03/03, fol. 2r.

26. Datini 886, 901299, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Luca del Sera to Datini Company, 1395/03/18, fol.1r.

27. Datini 1046, 6000568, letter Barcelona–Majorca, Filipozzo Soldani to Luca del Sera, 1395/03/30, fol. 1r.

28. ‘Io are’ bisongnio una bella carta da navichare per uno amicho della ragione della nostra, salvo la vorei più chonpiuta: prima vorei fosse tutta carta, e più vorei vi fosse dentro qualche terre del Nertano, cioè di saraini delle parti d’Allisandra, e così delle parti di Romania se fatta non avesse. Di questa ch’io dicho togliete una simile alla vostra [?nostra], o più chonpiuta se ssi può, e lla mandate per lla prima nave, o di costì, o da Valenza a Lucha o Ghuido me la mandino in qualche balla per salvo modo, e’l costo mi traete’. Datini 1060, 316064, letter Bruges–Majorca, Luca del Biondo to Datini Company, 1398/06/10.

29. Datini 887, 901262, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Luca del Biondo to Datini Company, 1397/06/23, fol. 1r.

30. Datini 1048, 316062, letter Barcelona–Majorca, Luca del Biondo to Datini Company, 1397/04/29, fol. 1r.

31. Datini 704, 510477, letter Chios–Florence, Luca del Biondo to Manno d’Albizo degli Agli, 1397/11/12, fol. 1r.

32. Datini 979, 802147, letter Bruges–Valencia, Luca del Biondo to Luca del Sera, 1398/07/05, fol. 1r.

33. Datini 1060, 316064, letter Bruges–Majorca, Luca del Biondo to Datini Company, 1398/06/10. The letter arrived in Majorca on 7 July.

34. For the letter, see note 28. It is unclear if by più chonpiuta Biondo meant it was to show a geographically more extensive area than on his map, or include more geographical details, or have more decoration.

35. Datini 979, 802147, letter Bruges–Valencia, Luca del Biondo to Luca del Sera, 1398/07/05, fol. 1r.

36. See Kevin Sheehan, ‘Aesthetic cartography: the cultural function of portolan charts from 1300 to 1700’, Imago Mundi 65:1 (2013): 133–34; Gautier Dalché, ‘La carte marine au Moyen Age’ (see note 3).

37. Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 440.

38. Datini 1047, 1101324 (see above at note 13). A previously unknown reference to a map rolled around a stick is found in the inventory of the estate of Jean d’Angoulême, 1467, which describes ‘A nautical map on parchment, rolled around a baton, divided into all lands and maritime countries, inscribed at the top ‘Anthony’s large ship was 32 fathoms long and its mast was 31, and carried 1500 tons laden’ [Une Mappe marine en parchemin, enrollee en ung baston, divisee par toutes terres et païs de mer, escript en teste La grant nef de anthon avoit 32 brasses de long et le mast 31 et portoit 1500 tonnaux poisant’]. See, Gilbert Ouy, La librairie des frères captifs les manuscrits de Charles d’Orléans et Jean d’Angoulême (Turnhout, Brepols, 2007), 67: Inventaire de 1467 (C), no. 141. We owe this reference to Maxence Hermant, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

39. Datini 886, 113527 and 113528, letters Majorca–Barcelona, 1396/01/11, fol. 1r (two copies of the same letter). See also Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (note 1), 435, document 99.

40. This kind of packaging, with cloth and wax, would have protected the fragile colours of valuable maps well. For further examples of packaging, see Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (note 1), 461, who does not, however, notice the use of the wax.

41. Datini 825, Quaderno di ricordanze E, Barcelona, 1400/08/13, fol. 18v. The text in full is ‘Ricordo che dem[m]o a Baldasare Ubriacho. I apomondo [sic] legato e amagl[i]ato in I^a chassa, e I apomondo [sic] dislegato, i quali ci avea fato per lui maestro Franciescho genovese, portò Uberto [empty space] fu con lui, con I bastagio e più III busole da apomondi [sic]’ [I remember that we provided Baldassare Ubriachi with one map bound and placed in a chest, and one map unbound, both made for him by maestro Francesco genoese; Uberto brought it with him, with a stick and three map’s compasses].

42. An example of a Venetian atlas on boards is preserved, together with its leather slipcase, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms Douce 390; see Eva Oledzka, ‘A Venetian set of portolan charts’ in Treasures from the map room. A journey through the Bodleian Collections, ed. Debbie Hall, Oxford, Bodleian Library, 2016: 86-87. The luxurious nature of these maps with their intricately embossed and highly polished leather case indicates that they were not intended for a sailor’s use at sea. In general, it is difficult to decide if references to binding (legato) in the letters indicate the binding of boards into a book as opposed to the ties of a rolled map: Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 462. According to the contracts cited by Skelton, ‘A contract for world maps at Barcelona, 1399–1400’ (see note 10), 109, the maps ordered by Ubriachi in 1399–1400 were large, and at more than 150 × 300 cm, far too big to be presented in book form.

43. See note 14 above.

44. On map collections in personal libraries, see John N. Hillgarth, Readers and Books in Majorca, 1229–1550 (Paris, 1991); Jacques Paviot, ‘Les cartes et leur utilisation à la fin du Moyen Age. L’exemple des principautés bourguignonnes et angevines’, Itineraria, 2 (2003): 201–28; Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 428–39; Emmanuelle Vagnon, Cartographie et représentations occidentales de l’Orient méditerranéen (du milieu du XIIIe à la fin du XVe siècle) (Turnhout, Brepols, 2013), 225–27, 231–32.

45. The inventory taken after Maringhi’s death in 1507 mentions ‘una charta da navichare chon sua fornimenti’ [a map with its instruments]. Cambridge, Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Baker Library Special Collections, Medici Family Collection, MS495C, fol. 111.

46. ‘Abian chonprato I^a charta da navichare ed è buna ma non n’è se non per marinieri; chosta Reali quatro, altra volta s’arebe auto per 3, ma non c’è chi lle facci se non el Bizaro usato, ch’è fantasticho. Quella che chonprai quando c’era Cristofano, ne vorebe x fiorini’. Datini 891, 902468, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Datini company to Datini company, 1408/02/04, fol. 1v. Pujades i Bataller suggests that ‘Bizaro’ could be another name for Samuel Corcos / Mecia de Viladestes or, possibly, Rafel Soler; Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 436, 488.

47. ‘Per detto Boraccino vi mandiamo la charta da navichare rivolta in n’uno incerato; fatelavi dare; R. quatro ne ponete a nostro conto … dice el’ Bizaro che chi ne vorà gli chostera di simili R. 5, che altro maestro non c’è che lui, e ll’è perfetta da navichare ma non è dipinta l’arme delle terre chome voresti che R. 8 ne vorebe. Se chostui morà non si potrà più navichare! Dio il ghuardi!’. Datini 891, 902471, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Datini Company to Datini Company, 1408/02/18, fol. 1v.The same references, with less detail, appear in Datini 891, 902473, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Datini Company to Datini Company, 1408/02/19, fol. 1r.

48. The price of a chart varied over time and according to the quality of the decoration, ranging from a couple of florins for the charts recorded in the Datini letters to 150 golden Aragonese florini in 1382 for a mappamundi made for the king. Prices are discussed in Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 279–80, 497–501; and Pujades i Bataller, ‘Les cartes de navigation’ (see note 11), 60–67, at 62. See also the comment on the cost of Catalan and Majorcan maps compared with the price of the Venetian mappamundi in Angelo Cattaneo, Fra Mauro’s Mappa Mundi and Fifteenth Century Venice (Turnhout, Brepols, 2011), 292–97.

49. Datini 891, 902471, letter Majorca–Barcelona, 1408/02/18, fol. 1v. The same reference, with fewer details, is made in ibid., 902473, letter Majorca–Barcelona, Datini Company to Datini Company, 1408/02/19, fol. 1r. Houssaye-Michienzi and Vagnon, ‘Cartographie commerciale’ (see note 8), 34. Gautier Dalché notes that the remark could have been ‘ironical’ and not intended to be taken literally as a reaction to the exaggerated price asked by Bizaro in pretending to be the ‘last’ capable mapmaker available. Gautier Dalché, ‘La carte marine au Moyen Age (see note 3), 107.

50. The individual nature of the transactions explains the importance of personal letters rather than account books as documentation. Payment, we have seen tended also to be made directly to the mapmaker and through the private intermediary.

51. Luxury Catalan and Majorcan maps were greatly appreciated in the royal courts of the day and were sometimes specially made for this particular audience. This was the case with the four mappamundi ordered by Baldassare Ubriachi from Francesco Beccari, 7 June 1399, with the help of Simone d’Andrea Bellandi, the Datini Company’s director in Barcelona. On 14 July, and once again on 20 August, Ubriachi wrote that he was waiting impatiently for Francesco Beccari’s work, because he was preparing to travel to Navarre, England and Ireland. Michaelmas (29 September) seemed favourable for selling luxury goods, and he was certainly keeping one of the maps aside for the king of England. Datini 1111, 6100265, letter Saragossa–Barcelona, 1399/07/14, fol. 1r; Skelton, ‘A contract for world maps at Barcelona, 1399-1400’ (see note 10); Pujades i Bataller, Les cartes portolanes (see note 1), 430, document 27.