Cresques Abraham 1326? - 1387

It is clear that this Jewish family was established in Majorca for several generations, but it is not known whether they came originally from Catalonia or from North Africa. Allusions have been found in the royal archives of Aragon to Ferrer Cresques, a physician, and Vidal Cresques, a high-ranking civil servant .

Although few details are available about the life of Cresques Abraham (Cresques, son of Abraham), it is clear that he enjoyed a brilliant reputation at court and that he was one of the leading figures of the Majorcan cartographic school. A renowned cartographer, the king's "Magister mappamundorum et bruxolarum," Cresques was commissioned by Don Juan of Aragon to draft a map of the world for Charles VI, then 13 years of age. In a letter dated November 5, 1381, mention is made of "Cresques lo Juheu qui lodit mapamundi a fet" ("Cresques the Jew who made the said map of the world."). The map in question could not be the Catalan Atlas, which already belonged to the library of Charles V in 1380 ; this throws into doubt the attribution of the Catalan Atlas to Cresques Abraham. It is also known that he produced several other maps of the same type in 1381, 1382, and 1387 for the kings of France and Aragon.

Cresques Abraham's son, Yehuda (Jaffuda) Cresques (Yehuda, son of Cresques), who converted to Christianity in 1391 as did many Majorcan Jews, took the name of Jaume Riba (Jacobus Ribes). Like his father, he benefitted from the king's patronage and became "Magister cartorum navigandi" at court. The Aragon archives mention a commission given in 1389. He was still producing maps in the late fourteenth century. He could be the same "Mestre Jacome de Malhorca" present in Portugal in 1419 at the court of Henry the Navigator, and who was the transitional figure between Catalan cartography and the emerging Portuguese school.