Alonso de Santa Cruz

Alonso de Santa Cruz , also Alonzo, (* 1505 in Seville , † 1567 in Madrid ) was a Spanish historian, cartographer , cosmographer and maker of measuring instruments.

Life

Estuary of the Rio de la Plata. Map from the Islario General

Alonso de Santa Cruz was born in Seville in 1505 as the son of a wealthy shipowner. He completed his first studies in Salamanca . He learned early on the inadequacies of the art of navigation . When he set off with Sebastian Caboto in 1526 to explore the newly discovered Moluccas and to circumnavigate the world, the expedition landed instead on the coast of what is now Argentina . There the group thoroughly explored and mapped the estuary of the Río de la Plata . After five years, Santa Cruz returned to Spain via Veracruz and the Bahamas and began to study astrology and cosmology intensively .

In 1535 he began his professional career as a cosmographer at the Casa de Contratación . Previously, he had developed an instrument with which the longitude could be determined. He described the use of the instrument in his Libro de las longitudes . In 1539 he was appointed Contino de la Casa Real . This position brought him close contact with the court of Charles V. He taught the future King Philip II in the natural sciences for a time. At this time he began work on Islario General , a work in which all the islands in the world should be listed. His cosmographic research took him to Lisbon in 1545 , where he met with leading Portuguese cosmographers and sailors. In the 1550s he returned to Seville and devoted himself entirely to his research. In addition to geographical works, the Crónica de los Reyes Católicos and the Crónica del Emperador Carlos V.

From 1554 Santa Cruz had to return to the court in Madrid. He was appointed personal advisor to King Philip II on cosmographic matters. In addition, he was still Cosmógrafo mayor of the Casa de Contratación and advisor to the Consejo de Indias . Alonso de Santa Cruz died in Madrid in 1567.

He left behind an extensive historical and cartographic work. The only surviving map of the world from 1542 is in the Royal Library in Stockholm.

Works

• Nova verior et integra lotius orbis descriptio , map of the world 1542.
• Libro de las longitudes y manera que hasta agora se ha tenido en el arte de navegar, con sus demostraciones y ejemplos, dirigido al muy alto y muy poderoso Señor Don Philipe II de este nombre rey de España (1539). Antonio Blázquez, Delgado Aguilera (ed.), Seville 1921
  • The book of longitudes . Bisbee 1992.
• Islario general de todas las islas del mundo (1560). Antonio Blazquez (ed.), Madrid 1920.
  • The maps of America in the Islario General des Alonso de Santa Cruz: cosmógrafo mayor of the Emperor Charles V .: with the original Spanish texts and a critical introduction , Franz R. v. Wieser (ed.) Innsbruck 1908.
• Crónica de los Reyes Católicos , J. de Mata Carriazo (ed.). Seville 1951
• Crónica del Emperador Carlos V , Antonio Blázquez, Delgado Aguilera, Ricardo Beltrán y Róspide (eds.). Madrid 1920–1925, 5 vols.
• Dignotio et cura affectuum melancholicorum . Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz (ed.), Madrid 1622.

literature

• María M. Portuondo: Secret science: Spanish cosmography and the new world . Chicago 2009. ISBN 978-0-226-67534-3
• Arndt Brendecke : empire and empiricism. Functions of knowledge in Spanish colonial rule . Cologne 2009. ISBN 978-3-412-20399-3 .
• Louise Bénat-Tachot: Alonso de Santa Cruz, an expert au service de l'Empire? In: Scarlett O'Phelan Goday, Carmen Salazar-Soler ( eds .): Passeurs, mediadores culturales y agentes de la primera globalización en el mundo ibérico, siglos XVI-XIX . Lima 2005, pp. 679-712. ISBN 9972-832-18-X
• Mariano Cuesta Domingo: Alonso de Santa Cruz, cartógrafo y fabricante de instrumentos náuticos de la Casa de Contratación . In: Revista complutense de historia de America , 30 (2004), pp. 7-40.
• Françoise Naudé: Reconnaissance du Nouveau Monde et cosmographie à la Renaissance . Kassel 1992. ISBN 3-928064-30-4
• Mariano Cuesta Domingo: Alonso de Santa Cruz y su obra cosmografica . Madrid 1984. ISBN 8400054091 .