The artisans of ‘Plus Ultra’: Pilots, cartographers and cosmographers in the House of Trade in Seville during the sixteenth century

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the institutionalization of cosmography and navigation ended with the slogan Non Terrae Plus Ultra, and led to the emergence of imperial heading Plus Ultra helped by the navigation of a Mare Tenebrosum (the Atlantic Ocean), and the delineation of the contours of a new world that began beyond the Columns of Hercules. This process was made possible by the establishment in Seville of the House of Trade in 1503 and the creation of scientific offices such as Pilot Major, master of making nautical charts or cosmographer. The ship appears on the cover of the Regimiento de navegación (1606) by Andres García de Céspedes across the pillars of the hero of Greek mythology highlights the Baconian premise of man's dominion over nature, the knowledge gained through the conquest of the West Indies, and also the wishes of the Spanish monarchy by taking advantage of the usefulness of scientific knowledge by joining the nautical experience and cosmographical theory.