Padrón Real

Origins

The Padrón Real, later renamed the Padrón General in 1527, was Spain’s official and secret master map, kept in Seville at the Casa de Contratación. Every Spanish ship in the 16th century was required to carry a copy made from this template, or face a fine of 50 doblas. The map likely included a large-scale chart displayed on a wall in the old Alcázar of Seville. Notable cartographers and pilots who worked on or used it included Amerigo Vespucci, Diogo Ribeiro, Sebastian Cabot, Alonzo de Santa Cruz, and Juan Lopez de Velasco.

The map was first created around 1507/08 and was steadily updated. The Casa de Contratación, founded in 1503, required all returning ships to report new lands, discoveries, latitudes, and longitudes under oath. Pilots at the Casa then added this data to the master map. Outgoing ships received charts copied from the Padrón Real. Diego Ribeiro, who entered Spanish service in 1518, produced several versions between 1525 and 1532, incorporating knowledge from Elcano’s circumnavigation and Spanish explorations in North America. Later revisions were overseen by Alonso de Chaves in 1536 and Alonzo de Santa Cruz in 1542.

Almost no original copies survive, but presentation copies given to foreign dignitaries still exist. One believed to be a copy, the Salviati Planisphere, is in Florence’s Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, likely given by Emperor Charles V to Cardinal Giovanni Salviati in 1526. Another similar world map, given to Count Baldassare Castiglione, is in Mantua. The most impressive surviving copy is in the Vatican Library, a gift from Charles V to the Pope in 1529. This vellum map, measuring 83.8 by 203.2 centimeters, is thought to be from the 1520s, when Spain and Portugal were in a boundary dispute. It features rhumb lines and compass roses typical of medieval portolan charts, along with many coastal place names, some marking Spanish claims. The map includes rudimentary latitude lines, the equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and the Arctic and Antarctic circles—innovations for the time. It contains no imagined details where information was lacking.

The Padrón Real was similar in concept to Portugal’s secret master map, the Padrão Real, developed by the Casa da Índia in Lisbon, which operated from around 1500 or 1501 until 1755. The project was massive, involving many cartographers, navigators, archivists, and administrators. Amerigo Vespucci, who made at least two voyages to the New World, worked as a pilot at the Casa until his death in 1512 and was appointed pilot major in 1508 to train new pilots. His nephew Juan Vespucci inherited his maps and instruments and later became examiner of pilots in 1524. In the 1530s and 1540s, principal mapmakers on the Padrón General included Alonso de Santa Cruz, Sebastian Cabot, and Pedro de Medina. Diego Gutiérrez became cosmographer by royal appointment in 1554 and published a notable map, “Americae ... Descriptio,” in Antwerp in 1562.

Mapmakers

This enterprise was a huge project, and it was taken very seriously. The Casa de Contratación had a large number of cartographers and navigators (pilots), archivists, record keepers, administrators and others involved in producing and managing the Padrón Real. The famous Amerigo Vespucci, who made at least two voyages to the New World, was a pilot working at the Casa de Contratación until his death in 1512. A special position was created for Vespucci, the 'pilot major' (chief of navigation) in 1508. He had the responsibility of training new pilots for ocean voyages. His nephew Juan Vespucci inherited his famous uncle's maps, charts, and nautical instruments, and was appointed to Amerigo's former position as official Spanish government pilot at Seville. In 1524, Juan Vespucci was appointed Examiner of Pilots, replacing Sebastian Cabot who was then commanding an expedition in Brazil. During the 1530s and 1540s, the principal mapmakers (known as 'cosmographers') in the Casa de Contratación working on the Padrón General included Alonso de Santa Cruz, Sebastian Cabot, and Pedro de Medina. Mapmaker Diego Gutiérrez was named cosmographer in the Casa de la Contratación by royal appointment on October 22, 1554, after the death of his father Diego in January 1554, and worked on the Padrón General. In 1562, Diego Gutiérrez published a remarkable map entitled 'Americae ... Descriptio' in Antwerp. The reason it was published in Antwerp instead of Spain was that the Spanish engravers did not have the necessary skill to print such a complicated document. Other cosmographers included Alonso de Chaves, Francisco Falero, Jerónimo de Chaves, Sancho Gutiérrez (Diego's brother). During the late 16th century, Juan Lopez de Velasco was cosmographer major in Seville. He produced a master map and twelve subsidiary maps portraying the worldwide Spanish Empire in cartographic form. This feat surpassed anything done by other European powers at that time. However, this marked the end of Spain's supremacy in mapmaking.