What you'll learn

• 1 (05:29) **Defining Key Terms: Illumination, Illustration, and Cartography** - Professor Kogman-Appel clarifies the technical meanings of these medieval crafts before diving into Elisha Cresques' work.
• 2 (07:37) **The Setting: Majorca and its Jewish Community** - A historical overview of the island where Cresques lived, including its conquests, demographics, and the role of its Jewish population.
• 3 (12:41) **Cresques' Biography: A Rare Documentary Trail** - How an unusually detailed colophon and archival records allow us to reconstruct the life of this Jewish scribe and mapmaker.
• 4 (17:49) **Family and Social Standing** - Details about Cresques' relatives, his marriage, and his prosperous life in Majorca.
• 5 (23:03) **The Two Types of Medieval Maps** - A crucial distinction between conceptual "Mappaemundi" and scientific "Portolan charts," which frames Cresques' unique achievement.
• 6 (31:03) **The Catalan World Map: A Visual Encyclopedia** - An introduction to Cresques' masterwork, explaining its unique rectangular form and dual nature as both a Portolan chart and a scientific world map.
• 7 (35:33) **The Ptolemaic Framework** - How the ancient Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy's geocentric cosmology and projection method shaped the entire design of Cresques' map.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app