Introductory essay
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techniques. Tomás López remained in France for nine years, studying under master geographers and engravers such as J. B. Bourguignon d’Anville and G.N. Delahaye. Back in Spain, his Madrid-based map printing workshop created, printed and published maps of kingdoms, provinces and cities with a view to completing his most important project: a great atlas of Spain. His work as a commercial publisher finally boosted the production of maps printed in Spain. Tomás López did not base his cartographic creations on personal topographic and astronomic observations, using a large amount of material dating from the 16th and 17th centuries and maps drawn in Spain in the 18th century by different professionals. He also made use of the information which, as the King’s geographer, he obtained from the civilian and ecclesiastical authorities of the towns and cities of Spain by means of the well known Interrogatorio (questionnaire) that carries his name. The cartographic and publishing activities of Tomás López were enormous, and not limited to the national market; he also drew up, engraved and published maps of foreign territories where he soon gained fame as a good cartographer. In spite of the weaknesses of his methods, his maps were not bettered for a long period. The Military Archives of Stockholm contains 47 loose-leaf items by this author and some duplicate copies dated from 1761 to 1792. They include two general maps of the Iberian peninsula and one of the Kingdom of Portugal; the rest –except for a chart of the Azores Islands– represent the mosaic of Spanish regions, showing the country’s civil, ecclesiastical and jurisdictional divisions in the 18th century (174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220).

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