Biography:

Tomàs Vidal Bendito was retired professor of Human Geography at the University of Barcelona. A disciple of Jean Bisson and Joan Vilà Valentí, his degree thesis was on the evolution of agriculture and rural property on the island of Minorca and the doctoral thesis on the rural depopulation of Catalonia. He obtained his doctorate in 1974 at the University of Barcelona. A specialist in population geography, he published numerous publications on migratory movements, demographic transition and techniques for demographic analysis. He has done work in thematic cartography and created and directed the Atlas Socioeconòmic de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1980-1981). He participated in diverse research projects into the history of cartography, centring his research on the territorial evolution of the island of Minorca and, especially, the history of its cartographic image.