This map, attributed to Joan Margarit y Pau, forms part of a manuscript of Geography by Claudius Ptolemy, dated 1456 and preserved at the University of Salamanca, Spain.
This map shows the Iberian Peninsula, along with the Balearic Islands and northern Maghreb. Red lines appear on the map, showing the territorial boundaries of the kingdoms that existed in the region at that time: Portugal in the west, Castile in the centre, Aragon in the east, and Granada in the south.
Joan Margarit y Pau was a humanist and ambassador for the Catholic Monarchs. He designed this map in Italy in the mid-15th century, and it surpasses in accuracy other maps of the Iberian Peninsula that accompanied manuscripts of Geography throughout Europe, mainly in Italy. Given the details, it seems that Margarit was inspired by a portolan chart from the Catalan-Mallorcan school, as it includes a good definition of the coasts, as well as measurements between various points.
This map was analysed in detail in an article published in Nature by Federico Pablo-Martí & Jesús López-Requena.


