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An Official Image of the World for the Hispanic Monarchy
The Padrón Real of the Casa de la Contratación in Seville, 1508–1606
In: NunciusThis paper discusses the Padrón Real (Royal Pattern Chart or master sea chart), an official class of maps of the world instituted by the Spanish monarchy and produced by Seville’s Casa de la Contratación (House of Trade) from 1508 onwards, in a political context dominated by the dispute between the two largest expansionist empires in Europe – Portugal and Castile – which was heightened following the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The Padrón Real became a model for European cartographers and its history sheds light on the development of map-making practices at the Casa in the Crown’s attempt to regulate cosmography for its own political ends.
The Padrón Real was unprecedented for its time and, together with the question of how to determine longitude, reflected what were the most important cartographic challenges facing the early modern world: how to represent a three-dimensional body – the globe – on a flat surface and how to provide reliable geographic maps when they were subject to constant revision.
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1
See Antonio Sánchez, “Ciencia ibérica y mundo atlántico,” Dynamis, 2011, 31:245–259. This review essay discusses three important books in this historiographical context: Víctor Navarro, William Eamon (eds.), Más allá de la leyenda negra: España y la revolución científica (Valencia: Universitat de Valencia-CSIC, 2007); James Delbourgo, Nicholas Dew (eds.), Science and Empire in the Atlantic World (New York – London: Routledge, 2008); and Daniela Bleichmar, Paula De Vos, Kristin Huffine, Kevin Sheehan (eds.), Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500–1800 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009). See also A. Sánchez, “La ‘atlantización’ de la ciencia ibérica: el mundo Atlántico visto desde la historia de la temprana ciencia moderna,” Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos, 2014, 60:29–66.
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2
See Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, “Iberian Science in the Renaissance: Ignored How Much Longer?”, Perspectives on Science, 2004, 12:86–124; Antonio Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006); Alison D. Sandman, Cosmographers vs. Pilots: Navigation, Cosmography, and the State in Early Modern Spain, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, 2001; Maria M. Portuondo, Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009).
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5
Víctor Navarro Brotóns, “Cartografía y cosmografía en la época del descubrimiento,” in Mundialización de la ciencia y cultura nacional, edited by Antonio Lafuente, Alberto Elena, María Luisa Ortega (Aranjuez: Doce calles, 1993), pp. 67–73.
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8
See Gerald R. Crone, Maps and Their Makers (Kansas: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1953). I refer here to the Spanish edition: Crone, Historia de los mapas (México: FCE, 1956), p. 40.
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9
W.G.L. Randles, “From the Mediterranean Portulan Chart to the Marine World Chart of the Great Discoveries: The Crisis in Cartography in the Sixteenth Century,” Imago Mundi, 1988, 40:115–118.
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10
David Turnbull, “Cartography and Science in Early Modern Europe: Mapping the Construction of Knowledge Spaces,” Imago Mundi, 1996, 48:5–24, p. 7ff. For a discussion of the Portuguese institution, see Francisco Paulo Mendes da Luz, Francisco Paulo, “Dois organismos da administração ultramarina no século XVI: a Casa da Índia e os Armazéns da Guiné, Mina e Índias,” in A viagem de Fernão de Magalhães e a questão das Molucas: actas do II Colóquio Luso-Espanhol de História Ultramarina, edited by Avelino Teixeira da Mota (Lisboa: Junta de Investigações Científicas do Ultramar, 1975), pp. 91–105; Luis Adão da Fonseca, “Los precedentes portugueses: de la Casa da Mina a la Casa da Índia,” in España y América. Un océano de negocios. Quinto centenario de la Casa de la Contratación, 1503–2003, edited by Guiomar de Carlos Boutet et. al. (Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales: Ediciones El Viso, 2003), pp. 33–46.
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11
See Clarence H. Haring, Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1918), p. 35; Edward L. Stevenson, “The Geographical Activities of the Casa de la Contratación,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1927, 17 (2): 39–59. See also Manuel de la Puente y Olea, Los trabajos geográficos de la Casa de Contratación (Sevilla: Escuela Tipográfica y Librería Salesianas, 1900). Germán Latorre, La enseñanza de la geografía en la Casa de Contratación (Madrid: Estab. Tip. de J. Ratés Martín, 1915); Antonio Gómez et al. (eds.), Carlos V, la náutica y la navegación (Madrid: Lunwerg, 2000); Mariano Esteban, Isabel Vicente, “La Casa de la Contratación y la Academia Real Matemática,” in Historia de la ciencia y de la técnica en la Corona de Castilla III: Siglos XVI y XVII, edited by José María López Piñero (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 2002), pp. 35–51; Antonio Acosta Rodríguez et al., La Casa de la Contratación y la navegación entre España y las Indias. XXV Congreso 500 Años de la Casa de la Contratación en Sevilla (Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 2003).
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13
Steven J. Harris, “Long-Distance Corporations, Big Sciences, and the Geography of Knowledge,” Configurations, 1998, 6:269–304, p. 280, in which Harris interprets the history of the Casa and of the Dutch East Indies Company, and the scientific practices of the Society of Jesus based on the theories of Latour.
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14
Antonio Barrera-Osorio, Nature and Empire in the New World, PhD thesis, University of California, 1999, pp. 21–103.
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15
Bruno Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), p. 215ff.
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17
Ursula Lamb, “Science by Litigation: A Cosmographic Feud,” Terrae Incognitae, 1969, 1:40–57, p. 41.
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24
See Joaquim Alves Gaspar, “Blunders, Errors and Entanglements: Scrutinizing the Cantino Planisphere with a Cartometric Eye,” Imago Mundi, 2012, 64:181–200.
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27
Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano (Madrid: Impr. Real, 1601), Década II, book I, chap. XII, p. 22.
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28
Cesáreo Fernández Duro, “Andrés de Morales, observador de las corrientes oceánicas,” Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica, 1893, 34:362–373.
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40
See Antonio Sánchez, “De la ‘cartografía oficial’ a la ‘cartografía jurídica’: la querella de las Molucas reconsiderada, 1479–1529,” Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, 2009: 1–22. http://nuevomundo.revues.org/index56899.html (accessed 30 June, 2014).
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44
Edward Luther Stevenson, “Typical Early Maps of the New World,” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1907, 39:202–224, p. 219. See Alberto Magnaghi, Il planisfero del 1523 della Biblioteca del Re in Torino (Florencia: Otto Lange, 1929).
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47
See Lisa Jardine, Wordly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998); Lisa Jardine, Jerry Brotton, Global Interests: Renaissance Art between East and West (London: Reaktion Books, 2000); and Peter Barber (ed.), The Map Book (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Illustrated, 2005). I consulted the Spanish edition, Peter Barber (ed.), El gran libro de los mapas (Barcelona: Paidós, 2006), pp. 92–95.
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49
Armando Cortesão, “Note on the Castiglioni Planisphere,” Imago Mundi, 1954, 11:53–55, pp. 54–55.
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60
See Mariano Cuesta, “Alonso de Santa Cruz, cartógrafo y fabricante de instrumentos náuticos de la Casa de Contratación,” Revista Complutense de Historia de America, 2004, 30:7–40.
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65
Louis-André Vigneras, “The Cartographer Diego Ribeiro,” Imago Mundi, 1962, 16:76–83, p. 78; Martín-Merás, Cartografía marítima hispana (cit. note 32), pp. 95, 96; Cesáreo Fernández Duro, “Las cartas universales de Diego Ribero (siglo XVI),” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1888, 12:319–325.
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68
Jerry Brotton, Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World (New York: Cornell University Press, 1997), p. 135ff.; and Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). In both books, Brotton devotes a few pages to the role played by reputable cartographers such as Diogo Ribeiro in diplomatic affairs such as the dispute over the Moluccas.
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70
Surekha Davies, “The Navigational Iconography of Diogo Ribeiro’s 1529 Vatican Planisphere,” Imago Mundi, 2003, 55:103–112; Vigneras, The Cartographer Diego Ribeiro (cit. note 65), pp. 76–83.
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74
Edward Luther Stevenson, “Early Spanish Cartography of the New World: With Special Reference to the Wolfenbüttel-Spanish Map and the Work of Diego Ribero,” American Antiquarian Society, 1909, 19: 369–419, pp. 378–388; Vigneras, The Cartographer Diego Ribeiro (cit. note 65), pp. 81–82. See also Cortesão and Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, Vol. I (cit. note 48), pp. 107–109 (plate 41). Cortesão and Teixeira da Mota attribute this chart to Diogo Ribeiro.
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84
See Alison Sandman, Eric H. Ash, “Trading Expertise: Sebastian Cabot between Spain and England,” Renaissance Quarterly, 2004, 57:813–843.
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94
Henry R. Wagner, “A Map of Sancho Gutiérrez of 1551,” Imago Mundi, 1951, 8:47–49; Sandman, Spanish Nautical Cartography (cit. note 4), p. 1122.
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111
See Antonio Sánchez, “Ciencia litigante: retórica, autoridad y razón en los pleitos cosmográficos de la Casa de la Contratación de Sevilla,” Archivo Hispalense, 2010, 93:383–403.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
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| Abstract Views | 1256 | 147 | 12 |
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An Official Image of the World for the Hispanic Monarchy
The Padrón Real of the Casa de la Contratación in Seville, 1508–1606
In: NunciusThis paper discusses the Padrón Real (Royal Pattern Chart or master sea chart), an official class of maps of the world instituted by the Spanish monarchy and produced by Seville’s Casa de la Contratación (House of Trade) from 1508 onwards, in a political context dominated by the dispute between the two largest expansionist empires in Europe – Portugal and Castile – which was heightened following the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The Padrón Real became a model for European cartographers and its history sheds light on the development of map-making practices at the Casa in the Crown’s attempt to regulate cosmography for its own political ends.
The Padrón Real was unprecedented for its time and, together with the question of how to determine longitude, reflected what were the most important cartographic challenges facing the early modern world: how to represent a three-dimensional body – the globe – on a flat surface and how to provide reliable geographic maps when they were subject to constant revision.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1256 | 147 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 289 | 6 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 85 | 11 | 4 |