Editing Jehuda Cresques (section)

== Biography ==
The son of [[Abraham Cresques|Cresques Abraham]], a famous [[Jews|Jewish]] cartographer, he was born in [[Majorca]], in the [[Balearic dialect|Majorcan-Catalan]] speaking part of [[Crown of Aragon]], in present-day [[Spain]]. Together he and his father were the probable authors of the famous [[Catalan Atlas]] of 1375.

Cresques' work was highly sought after. In 1390 [[John I of Aragon]] paid 60 [[French livre|livres]] and 8 [[French sol|sous]] for one of his maps. After the [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]]ese persecutions of 1391 he was forcibly converted<ref name="Cresques" /> to Christianity, at which time he took the name Jaume Riba, Jacobus Ribus, in [[Latin]]. He appears to have remained in Majorca for a considerable time and to have become known to the people there as "''lo jueu buscoler''", the map Jew, or "''el jueu de les bruixoles''", the compass Jew.

=== 'Mestre Jacome' ===
It has long been believed that Jehuda Cresques is the same person as 'Mestre Jacome', a Majorcan cartographer induced by the Portuguese prince [[Henry the Navigator]] to move to Portugal in the 1420s to train Portuguese map-makers in Majorcan-style cartography.<ref>"Mestre Jacome" the Majorcan cartographer is first mentioned by [[Duarte Pacheco Pereira]] in his ''Esmeraldo de situ Orbis'' (c.1507, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5LI8AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA58 p.58]). [[João de Barros]], in his ''Decadas de Asia'' (1552:  I.16 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AUOM39015057112644&pg=PA133 p.133]) adds that he was also a master instrument-maker.</ref> 'Jacome of Majorca' was described as the head of Henry's legendary observatory and "[[Sagres school|school]]" at [[Sagres (Vila do Bispo)|Sagres]] by [[Samuel Purchas]].<ref>"He also from Majorca caused one Master James, a man skillful in Navigation, in Maps and Sea Instruments, to be brought into Portugal, there at his charge as it were, to erect a School of Marinership, and to instruct his Countrymen in that Mysterie."
[[Samuel Purchas]], ''Hakluytus Posthumus'', (1625, vol. 2, pt.2 [https://books.google.com/books?id=nk8SAAAAYAAJ&dq=editions%3A4hAJ_d2dhNoC&pg=PA11 p.11]) See, ‘The alleged nautical school founded in the fifteenth century at Sagres by Prince Henry of Portugal, called the ‘Navigator’’, in W. G. L. Randles, Geography, cartography and nautical science in the Renaissance: the impact of the great discoveries (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 1 – 14.</ref>

The identification of "Mestre Jacome" with Jehuda Cresques" is principally due to the Catalan historian Gonzalo de Reparaz (1930).<ref>Reparaz (1930) bases his argument on the finding that the navigational charts given to [[Pêro da Covilhã]] and [[Afonso de Paiva]] in 1487 were based on maps drafted earlier by "Mestre Moyses" and "Jaime Ribera", the latter whom Reparaz takes to be Jaume Riba or Jacobus Ribus, the [[New Christian]] name of Jehuda Cresques. Reparaz suggests he came to Portugal sometime between 1420 and 1427, thus probably already in his seventies.</ref>
More recent research argues that Jehuda Cresques was dead by 1410,<ref>e.g. Jaume Riera i Sans, 1977</ref> and "Mestre Jacome" must have been someone else, identity still indeterminate - Majorca [[Majorcan cartographic school|had many skilled Jewish cartographers]].