Merchant Identity and Cartographic Impulse in the Architectural Sculpture of the Lonja of Palma de Mallorca

Abstract

The Lonja of Palma de Mallorca served as the seat of the College of Merchants as well as a stock exchange mainly for merchants engaged in maritime trade. Construction was carried out throughout the first half of the fifteenth century under the supervision of the architect Guillem Sagrera. The contract signed between Sagrera and the Merchant Guild has survived and allows us a better understanding not only of the merchants’ practical goals in building the Lonja but also their symbolical ones. The paper will demonstrate how the Lonja’s architectural sculpture transgressed its pure iconographical function and used to point to urban landmarks important to the merchants. By doing so the merchants generated an imaginary map that formed only a slice of the city’s geographic reality. The merchants did so in order to assert ownership and make territorial claims in light of tensed and conflictual political climate.