A contract for world maps at Barcelona, 1399–1400

Abstract

In the summer of 1399 Baldassare degli Ubriachi, an ivoryand jewel-merchant of Florence, set out on a journey to Aragon, Bordeaux, England and Ireland carrying pearls and jewels for sale. From the Kings of Aragon and Navarre he obtained, and from the King of England he hoped for, rights of free passage through their territories. On his outward journey he formed the intention of presenting maps as gifts to one or more of these monarchs, and while in Barcelona he commissioned four 'world maps' (mappamondi) from cartographers then resident in the city, Master Jacme Riba (or Ribes) of Mallorca and Master Francesco Becaria of Genoa. Contracts were agreed and payments made, on Ubriachi's behalf, by Simone d'Andrea Bellandi, a partner in the Florentine merchant banking house of Francesco Datini of Prato and manager of its fondaco in Barcelona. The terms of the contract are set out in a notarial deed executed by Becaria on 7 June 1399, and countersigned by Bellandi on 7 October 1399, though without mention of Riba; the progress of the work by Riba and Becaria can be followed in instructions sent by Ubriachi, on his travels, to Bellandi in July, August and October 1399; payments to the two cartographers, on Ubriachi's account, are recorded in the books of the Datinifondaco in Barcelona from 19 June 1399 to 21 April 1400; and on 26 May 1400 Becaria took legal action to claim from Ubriachi, who was now back in Barcelona, the balance of his fee and expenses for work done, to which Ubriachi two days later entered a counterclaim for completion of the maps. These transactions were already known in part from Ubriachi's letters, with details of the payments on his account, published from the Datini archives in Prato by G. Livi in 1910 (p. 50-52; cf. also Livi 1911; Reparaz, p. 37-38; Origo, p. 99). The two attestations of 7 June-17 October 1399 and 26-28 May 1400, in the Notarial Archives of Barcelona, were however unknown to Rubi6 i Lluch and to Reparaz, though mentioned by Rey Pastor and Garcia Camarero (p. 14, n. 2). They were only printed in 1962, without annotation, by Dr. Marina Mitja, and have been brought to our notice by Professor Elias Serra Rafols, of the Universidad de La Laguna. These two documents are of particular interest as illustrating the relations between medieval mapmakers and their clients. In view of the scarcity of documentation on medieval cartography, it has seemed desirable (with Dr. Mitja's kind permission) to reprint them in Imago Mundi with resume and commentary. In the Datini papers (all in Italian), the two cartographers concerned are designated as Maestro Giame Riba (or Ribes), 'cristiano novello, maestro di charte da navichare', and Maestro Francesco Beccha, 'di Genova, dipintore di charte da navichare'. As will appear, the difference in the professional descriptions of the two men may be significant. The notarial documents (in Latin, but including, in the second, sworn statements in Catalan) refer to Franciscus Becarius (Francesch Becaa or Becaria), 'magistrum cartarum navigandi, civis Janue, degens pronunc Barchinone' Jacme Riba (or Ribes) was the name assumed after his conversion to Christianity by the well-known Jewish cartographer of Mallorca, Jafuda Cresques (c. 1360 post 1420), who had assisted his father Abraham Cresques (d. 1387) in preparing the so-called 'Catalan Atlas' in 1375-77 for King Charles V of France, became a Christian in 1391 following the anti-Jewish pogrom in Aragon, moved from Mallorca to Barcelona not long after, and is commonly identified with the Mestre Jacome de Malhorca who is recorded in Portugal, apparently between 1420 and 1427, as cartographer to the Infante Prince Henry the Navigator (Reparaz, p. 31-45). Documents of 1381, 1382 and 1387 printed by Rubi6 i Lluch refer to world maps (mapamundis), now lost, executed by Jafuda in collaboration with his father for the Kings of France and of Aragon (Rey Pastor and Garcia Camarero, p. 59-60). It was perhaps King Martin I of Aragon who in 1399 recommended Master Jacme to Baldassare degli Ubriachi; but we must note that his name in this connection appears only in the Datini records, and not in the notarial documents of June-October 1399 and May 1400, to which Becaria alone was a party. In June 1399 Francesco Becaria is described as 'dwelling for th present (pronunc) in Barcelona', implying that this was n t his regular place of residence and work; he was still there eleven months later, being bound by his contract not to leave the city or its environs until his work for Ubriachi was completed. Only one original work by him is known: a chart of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, with the Atlantic coasts and islands, drawn in 1403 at Savona, perhaps while on his way home from Barcelona to Genoa, with the signature 'Francischus Becharius Ciuis Janue composuit Cartam presentem in Ciuitate Saona .. .' (Sotheby's, London, auction catalogue 19 March 1949; The World Encompassed 1952, no. 29; Almagia 1952, p. 360-63; Kraus 1955, p. 62-66; now in Yale University Library). This chart introduces, and its legend claims, an important innovation in that Becaria, 'in this and all other maps (cartis) made by him from the year 1400, has lengthened the distance of the navigation along the ocean sea by a certain space of miles or leagues, more than the said Franciscus and others who made large maps used to set down on them, both Catalan, Venetian, Genoese and others who made navigation charts in past times'. Seamen's us of a mileor league-measure along the oceanic coasts shorter than that used in the Mediterranean had led to the

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