Géronimo de Chaves (1523 - 1574)

Géronimo de Chaves,(1523-1574) was a Spanish cartographer, best known as the author of the first atlas map of Florida. His father, Alonso de Chaves, was examiner of pilots at the Casa de Contratacion (officially, La Casa y Audiencia de Indias.) This was the Spanish bureaucracy established by the Crown of Castile in 1503 to administer all matters pertaining to Spain's overseas empire. Its domain included the training of navigators and pilots, and the creation of maps and charts. Géronimo would follow his father in service to the Casa but as Chair of Cartography. It is not known how or precisely when his map passed from Spain to reach Ortelius in Antwerp, but since it did not reach print until ten years after Chaves' death it may be that it was allowed out of the country as obsolete.