Padrón Real of the Casa de Contratación
Padrón Real de la Casa de Contratación
- Date
- 1508 · confidence medium
- Place
- Seville, Andalusia, Spain
- Credited to
- Casa de Contratación (Amerigo Vespucci, pilot major)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
The official, secret world map of the Spanish crown, corrected with data from pilots returning from the Indies, to which all ships' charts had to conform. It was the first institutional attempt to systematise world mapping.
The original Padrón does not survive; it is known through derived maps (Ribero, 1529) and ordinances. The Casa was created in 1503 and the post of pilot major, held by Vespucci, in 1508.
What it led to
- official mapping of the Indies fleet system
- training of pilots and cosmographers at the Casa de Contratación