1784 Lopez Map of the Kingdom of Galicia

This is a 1784 map of the Kingdom of Galicia by Tomás López de Vargas Machuca, the preeminent Spanish cartographer of his generation. This is most authoritative map of Galicia ever committed to print, which López argued should be considered the first such map overall. In the text at the upper right, López wrote:

Se puede decir que este mapa es el primero impreso de Galicia... porque el del Pe. Ojea es tan diminuto, que de su lectura solo sacamos una instruccion muy limitada; el de Mr. De Fer y otros estrangeros son un monton de desalinos.

'It can be said that this map is the first printed of Galicia... because that of Father Ojea is so tiny, that from its reading we only get a very limited instruction; those of Mr. De Fer and other foreigners are a bunch of slops.'

López's boast is not baseless. The map of Hernando Ojea (1543 - 1615) to which he refers was first committed to print in the 1603 J.B. Vrients edition of the Ortelius atlas (he obtained a manuscript from Ojea.) This, in absolute terms, was the first printed map of Galicia, and was considered sufficiently correct that virtually every map printed of Galicia in that century was copied directly from it. Even so, in terms of detail López's criticism of the Ojea is valid: its scale limits detail. The maps of De Fer - which appear to be derived from, or from the same sources as the Cantelli and the Coronelli maps - did contain more data than their precursor, but even if they did not deserve the appellation un monton de desalinos, None approach this López map in either size or detail. Lopez credits an impressive array of sources - in sum, the map compiled a wealth of state-of-the-art data from a roster dominated by leading lights of the Spanish Enlightenment. They include the statesman Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (1744 - 1811); Pedro Varela y Ulloa (1737- 1797), then an official of the Secretary of State, who would eventually become Secretary of the Navy. Particular credit was given to José Andrés Cornide de Folgueira y Saavedra (D. Joseph Cornide; 1737 - 1803), a noted Galician geographer, naturalist and humanist

A Closer Look

This large map offers a wealth of placenames - many appearing on a map for the first time. Mountains are illustrated pictorially. Cities, large towns, villas and villages are marked distinctively with an array of symbols keyed to a legend to indicate the presence in those locations of different elements of religious or governmental administration - for example, specific symbols show archbishoprics, monasteries, forts, fairs, smithies - or the Spanish Inquisition (which we were not expecting).

Publication History and Census

The map was printed to four sheets, first as a separate issue in 1784, and thereafter in López's posthumousAtlas Geografico de Espana, which was printed in 1804 by his heirs, and appeared in further editions in 1810 and 1830. The separate first edition map is scarce; we are aware of just fourteen examples catalogued in institutional collections.