Portolanos
In practically all the 14th century portolanos (and specially in those of the Majorcan school of the Jews Abraham and Jafuda Cresques) Catalonia appears represented with flag in Barcelona, with a quartered formed by the royal bars ( two red ) and the Saint George's cross. The set is round-ended, and also in point.
Valencia appears represented by the flag with two red bars and fringes
And Majorca by a quartered that it is other possible interpretation of the pavilion of 1312
The previous flags are drawn from the original portolano of Mecią de Viladestes, other Majorcan Jew, dated in 1413, conserved in the National Library of Paris (Sign. Ge. AA. 566). "Las Provincias" shows a reproduction of the portolano with the flag of Valencia with a blue band and crown, non-existent in the original, and the flag that would correspond to Valencia has been drawn on Aragon (that in the original portolano has no flag), while that of Majorca continues the same.
"Las Provincias" mentions other portolano by Gabriel Valseca from 1439, where there would be a flag (or two flags since the text is very ambiguous) with two rectangles, one blue with crown and other with four red bars and five yellow. Since it is not reproduced and we do not have the original we can not analyze it, but from the same text it can be suspected that they are two flags: that of the city and that of the Kingdom and precisely that the reason why there is no reproduction.
Finally in the portolano of Joan Martinez from 1540 the flag of Valencia appears in vertical arrangement with the crown surmonunted; the background of the crown is dark like the pales or bars what suggests a red background. The flag of Cat alonia is similar but rectangular and with the pales or bars in vertical (containing each rectangle four golden pales and three red bars); the first and fourth quarter contain the cross and the second and the third the bars.
Catalan flags in portolanos.
Putting apart the flags identified with zones specific of the Catalan Countries, in the portolanos appear other flags with the royal colours.
In the navigation chart of the Majorcan Dulcert appears in the region of Murcia a vertical flag of two stripes, without colours, but that one can suppose yellow with two red stripes.
Similar flag shows Dolcert for the city of Valencia but not rectangular but rather round-ended. The first flag but with fringes appears in the Atlas of Cresques as flag of Valencia (see Bulletin 10) and also appears in the reproduction of the ship of the sailor Ferrer who in 1346 arrived to the outlets of the Senegal and Niger rivers.
The royal ships in the 14th and 15th centuries reproduced by Domenech show swalowtailed pennant with two stripes, from the time of king Peter the Ceremonios, as well as forementioned of Dolcert (see Bulletin 10).
Taken from the triptych allegoric of Barcelona’s trade, Calvo and Grįvalos reproduce a flag also with two stripes, but with yellow tails. It correspond to the 14th century. It is cited as a Valencian flagbut that must be a mistake, since logically it must be a Barcelonese merchant flag.
In Guillem de Soler and Mecią de Viladestes’s chart appear various royal flags, four corresponding to the main part of the Kingdom, two to Sicily, one to Valencia and one to Montpeller.
A flag of Caller (Cagliari) is identical to that of Valencia in the forementioned map of Cresques (for the image see Bulletin 10), flag that is repeated for the main part of the kingdom.
It also appears a flag more or less rond-ended with two stripes
Another similar flag has a triple round end, the central wider.
A flag of four stripes with fringes constitutes a novelty. It was supposedly drawn by Mecią de Viladestes.
