Casa de la Contratación of Seville (nautical school and registry)
Casa de la Contratación de Sevilla (escuela y registro náutico)
- Date
- 1503 · confidence high
- Place
- Seville, Andalusia, Spain
- Credited to
- Crown of Castile (Isabella I; Chief Pilot Amerigo Vespucci from 1508)
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A body created by the Crown of Castile in Seville to regulate trade with the Indies, which also examined and trained pilots, verified navigational instruments and maintained the Padrón Real, the official map corrected with the data of each voyage. It was one of the first state institutions of science applied to navigation.
Portugal had comparable institutions (Casa da Guiné e da Mina, Casa da Índia); the Contratación was created in 1503 and its Chief Pilot post in 1508. It moved to Cádiz in 1717 and was abolished in 1790.
What it led to
- examined pilots and navigation manuals (Pedro de Medina's Arte de navegar, 1545)
- official cartography: the Padrón Real
- a chair of cosmography (1552) and the technical training of seamen