Letters on the sails of the vessels seen on the title-page of Pedro de Syria’s Arte de la Verdadera Navegacion, published in Valencia in 1602, are a reminder that it was Columbus’ voyage in Spanish service just over a hundred years earlier that led to the ‘discovery’ of the Americas.
The book’s principal purpose, however, is to instruct readers in the art of navigation, and though the author, an aged jurist with no practical experience, declined Philip III’s offer to appoint him chief pilot of the Spanish fleet, he did take on the theoretical responsibilities.