and astronomy, frequently inserting astronomical calendars in their atlases. Most members of the Majorcan school (with the exception of Soler) were Jews, whether practicing or conversos. As a result, the school suffered heavily and eventually expired with the extension of force-conversion, expulsions and the Spanish Inquisition into the realms of the Crown of Aragon in the late 15th century. The production of medieval Portolan charts can be divided in two major schools: the Italian and the Catalan. Italian medieval cartographers came mostly from Genoa and Venice. Catalan charts were made in Majorca and Barcelona. Beside these two major schools, some maps were made in Portugal, but no examples survive. The inhabitants of Majorca were great navigators and cartographers. Their geographical knowledge was earned from their own experience and developed in a multicultural atmosphere. Muslim and Jewish merchants participated in extensive trade with Egypt and Tunisia, and in the 14th century they started doing business with England and Netherlands. These groups were not limited by the rules imposed by the Christian framework, and their maps were way ahead of their time. Professor Gerald Crone, who wrote books on medieval mapping, said of these cartographers, they "...threw off the bounds of tradition and anticipated the achievements of the Renaissance". The maps they made were prized by the princes and rulers of the Spanish mainland and other countries. The maps made in Majorca were easy to recognize by their brightly colored illustrations of significant geographical features and portraits of foreign rulers. The first known Majorcan map was made by Angelino Dulcert in 1339. Even in this early work, all the distinguishing features of the Majorcan Cartographic School were present. Dulcert made precise, colorful drawings that showed all the topographical details including rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. The notes written in Latin described the map. The most famous cartographers from the Majorcan school were Jews. Catalan Atlas and Abraham and Jehuda Cresques Abraham Cresques also known as, Cresques the Jew, was appointed as a Master of Maps and Compasses by John I of Aragon. The money he got for his appointment was used to build baths for Jews in Palma. In 1374 and 1375 Abraham and his son Jehuda worked on a special order. John I of Aragon advised the authorities that he needed to get a map, which would show the Strait of Gibraltar, the Atlantic coast and the ocean itself. The map they