Valentia, Murcia, cum Insulis Majorca, Minorca, et Yvica.

Title

Valentia, Murcia, cum Insulis Majorca, Minorca, et Yvica.

Description

Map shows the Spanish islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, the coast of Valencia and a title cartouche.

ca. 1620

Artist

Mercator (1512-1594)

Gerardus Mercator (1512 - 1594). He was a cartographer, philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for his work in cartography, in particular the world map of 1569 based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. He is renowned to the present day as the cartographer who created a world map based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. In his own day he was the world's most famous geographer but in addition he had interests in theology, philosophy, history, mathematics and magnetism as well as being an accomplished engraver, calligrapher and maker of globes and scientific instruments. He wrote few books but much of his knowledge is to be found in the copious legends on his wall maps and the prefaces that he composed for his atlas ,the first in which the term "atlas" appears and the sections within it.

Historical Description

The indigenous population of the Balearic Islands probably immigrated from the Iberian Peninsula or today's southern France. In ancient times, the islands were called Balearides or Gymnesiae, which meant the islands of Mallorca (Balearis major) and Menorca (Balearis minor). At first they were dependent on the Phoenicians. Mallorca and Ibiza were conquered in 1229 and 1235 respectively by Jacob I of Aragon (Catalan Jaume I), Menorca by his descendant Alfonso III. The Balearic Islands, like Catalonia, now belonged to the Aragon Crown. At times, together with parts of Catalonia, they formed an independent state, the Kingdom of Mallorca, ruled by a branch of the Aragonese royal family. In 1708 Maó was conquered by the British. The Peace of Utrecht (1713), which ended the War of Spanish Succession, gave Menorca to the British Empire. This had to return the island to Spain in the Treaty of Versailles (1783), but remained British until 1802. The Spanish province of the Balearic Islands was founded in 1833.