Diogo Ribeiro, known in Spanish as Diego Ribero, was a Portuguesecartographer and explorer who worked most of his life in Spain. He worked on the official maps of the Padrón Real from 1518–1532. He also made navigation instruments, including astrolabes and quadrants.
Early life
Born as Diogo Ribeiro, he was the son of Afonso Ribeiro and Beatriz d’Oliveira. However, there is no known record of the date and place of his birth. He is believed to have become a seaman at an early age and made several voyages to India as a ship pilot. Reportedly, Ribeiro sailed with Pedro Afonso de Aguiar who served as captain in the Armadas of the explorers Vasco da Gama, Lopo Soares, and Afonso de Albuquerque.
Career
By 1516, Diogo Ribeiro and other several Portuguese navigators and cartographers, conflicting with King Manuel I of Portugal, gathered in Seville to serve the newly crowned Charles V of Spain. Among them were explorers and cartographers Diogo and Duarte Barbosa, Estêvão Gomes, João Serrão, Ferdinand Magellan and Jorge Reinel, cosmographers Francisco and Ruy Faleiro and the Flemish merchant Christopher de Haro. Ribeiro started working for Charles I in 1518, as a cartographer at the Casa de Contratación in Seville. Ferdinand Magellan took part in the development of the maps used in the first circumnavigation of the Earth. On January 10, 1523, he was named Royal Cosmographer and "master in the art of creating maps, astrolabes, and other instruments". He eventually succeeded Sebastian Cabot as the head cartographer. Cabot published his first map in 1544. In 1524, Ribeiro participated in the Castilian delegation at the Conference of Badajoz, where Castile and Portugal discussed whether the Philippines were on the Castilian or Portuguese side of the Treaty of Tordesillas. In 1527, Ribeiro finished the Padrón Real, the official Spanish map used as template for the maps present in all Spanish ships. It is considered the first scientific world map. In 1531, he invented a bronze water pump that was able to pump water out ten times faster than the previous models. Diogo Ribeiro died in 1533.
First scientific world map
Ribeiro's most important work is the 1527 Padrón Real. There are 6 copies attributed to Ribeiro, including at the Weimar Grand Ducal Library and at the Vatican Library, in Vatican City. The layout of the map is strongly influenced by the information obtained during the Magellan-Elcano trip around the world. Diogo's map delineates very precisely the coasts of Central and South America. It shows the whole east coast of the Americas but of the west coast only the area from Guatemala to Ecuador. However, neither Australia nor Antarctica appear, and the Indian subcontinent appears too small. The map shows, for the first time, the real extension of the Pacific Ocean. It also shows, for the first time, the North American coast as a continuous one. It also shows the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. The absence of any large continent south of Asia is evidence that there had been no discovery of Australia at that date. ]
