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2.- Cartographers and peninsular cartographic production

The group of plans comprises a significant example of the abundant cartography available in Europe in the modern period, a time when this activity boomed from both a technical and business perspective. It includes examples which are familiar to experts because they are available in other map collections, but there are also images that are less common in the most popular historic cartography archives. The collection, however, is merely a small sample of the large amount of maps produced in Europe since the mid-16th century, when the art of map making was not only a necessity but also a profitable business.

The European States needed a representation of their geography both to legitimate their dominions and to inventory their human, economic and military resources. Their governments promoted the activity by commissioning cartographic productions for political and military use in the context of the consolidation of the Modern States; maps were used on occasions as propaganda of sieges, expeditions and victory at war. Such governmental interest was shared by a growing public which made use of maps for practical and intellectual reasons. Different incentives arose during the modern period to promote a constantly growing production: geographical explorations and journeys of discovery, trade, colonial exploitation or the mere curiosity of a society with an increasingly broad idea of the world. Added to this was a tendency towards luxury detected among the bourgeoisie and aristocracy for whom it was a source of prestige to own maps and plans, which were seen as rare but highly ornamental objects. Many of the property inventories found in the archives