Alonzo de Santa Cruz was a Spanish cartographer, mapmaker, instrument maker, historian and teacher. He was born about 1505, and died in November of 1567. His maps were inventoried in 1572.

Alonzo de Santa Cruz was a renowned cartographer on the Consejo de Indias

Consejo de Indias

The Council of the Indies, officially, the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies , was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire, both in the Americas and in Asia, combining legislative, executive and judicial functions...

, (i.e., the Council of Indian Affairs), and a cosmographer at the La Casa y Audiencia de Indias, or, as it was commonly called, the Casa de Contratación. There, he worked on the Padrón Real

Padrón Real

The Padrón Real , known after 2 August 1527 as the Padrón General , was the official and secret Spanish master map used as a template for the maps present on all Spanish ships during the 16th century. It was kept in Seville, Spain by the Casa de Contratación. Ship pilots were required to use a copy...

, a Spanish map documenting the discoveries in the New World.

Alonzo de Santa Cruz, described cosmography as a way of making a painting of the earth, "because (gra)phia is the same as painting and cosmos is world"

In 1530, Alonzo de Santa Cruz produced the first map of magnetic variations from true north. He believed it would be of use in finding the correct longitude. Alonso de Santa Cruz designed new nautical instruments, was interested in navigational methods, and wrote about John Cabot

John Cabot

John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the continent of North America since the Norse Vikings in the eleventh century...

's method for finding longitude which made use of the declination of the sun, observed with the quadrant.

Alonzo also taught astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 and cosmography in the court of Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

. Alonzo then wrote a five volume biography about Charles V which described some of the Spanish atrocities in the New World. This upset Charles' son, Phillip II

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

, and so Phillip removed three chapters of the biography.

He also produced the Islario general de todas las islas del mundo (sometimes called the Islario

Islario

An islario is a Spanish term for a map showing the islands of an ocean, continent or nation.Alonzo de Santa Cruz created a famous islario called the "Islario General" in 1542 at the request of Spanish King Phillip II. The full name of this work is Islario general de todas las islas del mundo...

 General), a map and document describing the world's islands, at the request of King Philip II

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

 in 1542. He also continued Hernando del Pulgar

Hernando del Pulgar

Hernando del Pulgar was a Spanish writer.He was born at Pulgar and was educated at the court of John II. Henry IV made him one of his secretaries, and under Isabella he became councillor of state, was charged with a mission to France, and in 1482 was appointed historiographer-royal...

's work titled, History of the Catholic Monarchs. His son Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz

Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz

Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz was the court physician in the royal courts of Philip III and Philip IV. Antonio was the son of Alonzo de Santa Cruz , a famous Spanish cartographer, instrument maker and historian....

(1561-1632) published Alonzo's book Dignotio et cura affectuum melancholicorum (Diagnóstico y tratamiento de las afecciones de los melancólicos) about the diagnosis and treatment of melancholy posthumously in 1622.