Mecia (Matthew) De Viladestes

Jewish chartographer of Majorca at the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was the author of a map, dated 1413, formerly in the convent of Val de Cristo, near Segorbe, but now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. In it he gives special prominence to the navigation in African waters of Jacme Ferrer, also of Majorca. It fills six sheets in Marcel's "Choix de Cartes et de Mappemondes des XIVe et XVe Siècles" (Paris, 1896). The map is based upon the work of Jaffuda Cresques, the probable author of the atlas of Charles V. Mecia therefore belonged to the Judæo-Catalan school of chartographers. Don Miguel Bonet has discovered in the archives of Majorca a permit of the governor's lieutenant allowing the "convert Macia" to debark in Sicily. This is dated Jan. 20, 1401, and probably refers to Mecia.

Bibliography:

  * E. T. Hamy, in Comptes Rendus of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1902, p. 71.



J. G.