La cartografía en el catastro de Ensenada, 1750-1756

Abstract

Tlie Cartography in the Ensenada Cadastre. 1750-1756. In this work the author reflects on the cartographical aims and results that were designed and obtained through surveys in the Crown of Castille between 1750 and 1756, known as the Ensenada cadastre. This article covers the main characteristics of the cadastre as general background where an important set of representations are produced. These representations are of a nontechnical cartographical character. Along with this, the author lists the rules required in order to obtain significant information and the «reversing» of the process once realised the lack of specialists in geometry. As a result of this, they became aware of the amount of time that would be needed in order to measure and represent accurately the thousands of terms that had to be surveyed. But this was not the only drawback as appropriate documents had to be written with the results of the census. The surveyors also had to decide on the use to be given to these documents. Finally this article states that the first institutional attempts to elaborate the Atlas of Spain and the unofficial cartographical cadastre took place at the same time. This «unofficial » cartography can be called so, because mostly it was carried out not knowing the principles of cartography.