The Fundación Bartolomé March
In Palma, there are two institutions called Fundación March. The first one is the Museu Fundación Juan March, set up by Juan March Ordinas, the contrabandista and later founder of Banca March, […]
The Limits to Growth
An extraordinary event took place in Italy, four days before the Spanish General Elections on Sunday. Last Wednesday, Italy constituted a new, post-Berlusconi government composed entirely of non-politicians. I have […]
Weather Vane
Abraham Cresques and his son Jehuda Cresques are two eminent cartographers of maritime maps and portolan charts from the 14th century. Their most famous single work may well be the […]
The Prince’s Son From Felanitx
In 1956, Robert Graves published a compelling translation of George Sand’s Winter in Majorca (Valldemosa Edition, Mallorca, 1956). In a footnote to the book, he claimed that Christopher Columbus, the […]
The Atlas Maior By Joan Blaeu
Long before the advent of photography, aeroplanes, rockets and satellites, human imagination was relying on clever people’s craftmanship such as carthography when it came to envisioning a picture of the […]
The Catalan Atlas of 1375
During the 14th century, Mallorca was particularly renowned for its cartographers, mapmakers and makers of portolan charts. The most famous ones were Abraham Cresques and his son, Jafudà (shown in […]
The Torre de Pareires in Porto Pí
Palma’s Avinguda Gabriel Roca is locally better known as Passeig Marítim. Interestingly, the water-faced side of this stretch along the seafront does not come under the auspices of Palma’s municipal […]