Katrin Kogman Appel (Universität Münster): Jewish Metaphors of Political Power: Ruler Portraits in the Catalan Mappamundi (Majorca, c. 1375)

The Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages and the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies invite you to the lecture „Jewish Metaphors of Political Power: Ruler Portraits in the Catalan Mappamundi (Majorca, c. 1375)“ that will be delivered by Professor Katrin Kogman Appel, Alexander von Humboldt-Professor for Jewish Studies at the University of Münster. This lecture will be a part of the Medieval Conflicts and Contrasts Lecture Series organized by the Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.

The richly illustrated Catalan Mappamundi is among the most celebrated medieval maps surviving to this day. Commissioned by Peter IV of Aragon as a gift to Charles V of France it was put to parchment by Elisha Cresques, a Jewish scribe, illuminator, and cartographer in the City of Majorca. The talk explores how Elisha, from his delicate position as a Sefardi intellectual in the service of the Court coped with his patron’s agendas while, at the same time, voiced his own views of the politics of his time.