Bujaraloz - Ayuntamiento - Placa Martín Cortés

Martín Cortés de Albacar (1510–1582) was a Spanish

cosmographer The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-scal ...

.p131 Antonio Barrera-Osorio ''Experiencing nature: the Spanish American empire and the early scientific revolution;'' University of Texas Press, 2006 In 1551 he published the standard navigational textbook ''Arte de navegar'' (also known as ''Breve compendio'') Cortés was born in

Bujaraloz Bujaraloz is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 1,002 inhabitants. See also *Monegros *List of municipalities in Zaragoza This is a list ...

, province of

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, Aragon. From 1530, in Cádiz, he taught cosmography and the art of navigation to

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

''Art of Navigation''

Cortés' book, ''Breve compendio,''...''Arte de navegar'' was promoted by

Steven Borough Steven Borough (25 September 1525 – 12 July 1584) was an English navigator and an early Arctic explorer. He was master of the first English ship to reach the White Sea in 1553 and open trade with Russia on behalf of the Muscovy Company. He becam ...

who had it translated into English by Richard Eden and published in 1561 entitled ''The

Art of Navigation Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

.'' As such it became the first English manual of navigationAndrew Hadfield, ‘

Eden, Richard (c.1520–1576) Richard Eden (c. 1520–1576) was an English alchemist and translator. His translations of the geographical works of other writers helped to foster enthusiasm for overseas exploration in Tudor England. Early life Richard Eden, the son of a clot ...

’, ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 and the primary text for European navigation throughout the early 17thC, enjoyed by such as Martin Frobisher and

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...

. ''Arte de navegar'' was a practical book in which Cortés discussed, in a concise manner, navigation, cosmography and problems such as

magnetic declination Magnetic declination, or magnetic variation, is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a magnetized compass needle points, corresponding to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines) and ...

for which he hypothesised a Celestial magnetic pole. He included many illustrations and models for making instruments.Antonio Barrera,

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

Navigational Manual of Cortés
and the text contained the earliest known description of the

Nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

Harriet Wynter and Anthony Turner, ''Scientific Instruments'', Studio Vista, 1975, and how to make and use a

sea astrolabe The mariner's astrolabe, also called sea astrolabe, was an inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude (declination) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination. Not an astrolab ...

Swanick, Lois Ann. ''An Analysis of Navigational Instruments in the Age of Exploration: 15th Century to Mid-17th century'', MA Thesis, Texas A&M University, December 2005 Cortés' calculations were critical in allowing explorers to ascertain their location when out of sight of land. In 1574, the mathematician William Bourne, produced a popular version of the book, entitled ''A Regiment for the Sea''. Bourne was critical of some aspects of ''Arte de Navegar'' and produced a manual of more practical use to the seaman.G. L'E. Turner, 'Bourne, William (c.1535–1582)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 He died aged 72.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortes De Albacar, Martin 1510 births 1582 deaths 16th-century Spanish astronomers Spanish navigators