На первый взгляд, Каталонский атлас 1375 г является картой мира. Технически он состоит из шести частей, пергаменов, изготовленных из овечьих шкур; каждый пергамен был укреплен на деревянной панели. Позднее листы были сняты с досок и соединены в книгу. При этом страницы были вертикально согнуты, а это привело к тому, что они, в конце концов, разломились. На сегодняшний день атлас представляет 12 вновь соединенных полулистов.
The Catalan atlas is generally viewed as: a) a portolan to which the weight of decorative details is added; and b) as a map of the world (тара mundi). In the author’s opinion, both views are mistaken. Most researchers are interested just in fragments of the atlas; no one has ever examined the atlas as a whole composition. The author suggests considering the atlas as a cosmographic treatise. The language of this treatise is unusual: the space on the map is covered by signs (symbols, figures, miniatures). The cartographer is interested in two themes: an origin of the plague of 1348 and routes to countries where gold is found. If this suggestion is true, it enables one to explain a strange circumstance: why all the governors depicted on the map lived before the outbreak of plague of 1348. It is assumed that the cartographer models a situation in the world prior to the beginning of the pandemic. Historical figures on the map (Mongolian khans Janibeq, Qebeq and Kublai) are mere symbols as well as the figures of the Queen of Sheba and Alexander the Great.
