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Itinerario de Navegacion de los Mares y Tierras Occidentales

Title: Itinerario de Navegacion de los Mares y Tierras Occidentales

Author: Jhoan de Escalante de Mendoza

Year: 1575

Country: Spain

Description: 

Owner: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain

Call No.: Codice in Sec. Ms.

Notes: Reproduced in facsimile in a CDRom edition by the Fundación Histórica Tavera. Published in Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Disquisiciones náuticas (1880), 5 Vols., Madrid: Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, 1996, 5:413-515.

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Digitized version of 1880 printing in the collection Disquisiciones nauticas, Vol V.

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Introduction

Itinerario de Navegacion de los Mares y Tierras Occidentales is written as a dialogue “in the manner of the serious Greek and Latin philosophers,” as Mendoza describes it. The main dialogue takes place between two people: an experienced pilot and someone called the “interlocutor” (speaker), who is learned in the art of navigation. The work is divided into three books:

The first book describes the route down the Guadalquivir river from Seville to Sanlúcar de Barrameda and contains a treatise on naval architecture.

The second book explains how to navigate from the mouth of the Guadalquivir to the Gulf of Vera Cruz (for the fleet of Nueva España) and to Nombre de Dios (for the fleet of Tierra Firme). It also discusses nautical instruments, how to measure latitude, and meteorology.

The third book details the return voyage to Spain and includes discussion on: compensating for magnetic declination, San Telmo’s (Saint Elmo’s) fire, seasickness, shipwrecks, and privateers, among other topics.

The Author

Jhoan de Escalante de Mendoza is the son of García de Escalante and Johana de Mendoza. He was born around 1530 in Valle de Riva de Deva in the province of Santander, Spain. At a young age he went to live with his uncle, Álvaro de Colombres, a ship’s captain who instructed him in the art of navigation. At eighteen years of age, he captained his own ship on a round trip voyage to Honduras. He dedicated his career to the carrera de las Indias (literally, the Indies run), reaching the position of capitán general de la flota de Nueva España (captain general of the New Spain fleet) in 1595. He died in 1596 in the city of Nombre de Dios.

Content

Pages from Duro, Cesário Fernandez. Disquisiciones Nauticas (1880), Ed. Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, Madrid, 1996, Vol. V.

Treatise - Itinerario de Navigacion

Works Cited

Duro, Cesário Fernandez. Disquisiciones Nauticas (1880), Ed. Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, Madrid, 1996, Vol. V. Full text reproduced beginning on page 413.

Viera de Castro, Filipe. The Pepper Wreck: A Portuguese Indiaman at the Mouth of the Tagus River. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

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