Suma de Geographia (Spanish: Suma de Geografía; lit. 'sum of geography') is a Spanish book on cosmography, geography, and maritime navigation written by Martín Fernández de Enciso and published in 1519 in Seville. Suma is deemed the first pilot's manual to comprehensively describe the New World as then understood by the Spanish and Portuguese. It is further noted as the first appearance in print of the Spanish requerimiento, and as a seminal work in Spanish navigational guides of the period.
Background Martín Fernández de Enciso is thought to have begun writing his Suma de Geographia in Spain by at least 1518. Enciso was granted a printing patent for Suma in Zaragoza on 5 September 1518. The work was first published in Seville in mid-to-late 1519 by Jacobo Cromberger. A revised edition was published in Seville in 1530 by Juan Cromberger, and later first reprinted posthumously in Seville in 1546 by Andrés de Burgos. A partial English edition, A briefe description of the weast India, was first published in London in 1578 by Henry Bynneman.
Contents Suma is deemed to consist of two parts, a cosmographical (cum nautical), and a geographical one, in that order. The cosmographical treatise expounds on the configuration and functioning of the (Ptolemaic, geocentric) universe, and further provides practical guidance on maritime navigation. The geographical discourse presents select human and physical features of the Old and (known) New Worlds, as split by the meridian that runs through El Hierro.
Map A world map was meant to accompany the text of the Suma. Indeed, Enciso discussed two different types of world map - nautical planispheres and polar azimuthal hemispheres - and chose the former because he deemed them more suitable for pilots. However, none of the extant copies of the Suma contains any map. Some authors have blamed this on political reasons, it being feared that Portugal might have misgivings about the map's publication. Nonetheless, there is no evidence of censorship towards the Suma and the printing patent explicitly authorized the publication of Enciso's map. It has thus been suggested that the reason for not publishing the map was technical rather than political: the inability of Iberian printing presses to handle such a large and detailed map as the one that is described in the Suma.
Legacy Suma has been deemed the first pilot's manual in Spanish, and the first such for the New World. It is further noted as the first print book to include the Spanish requerimiento. It is thought to have been particularly influential for later Spanish works on maritime navigation. It has been further suggested that the unpublished world map proved 'very influential' to the one smuggled by Robert Thorne to England in 1527, later published by Hakluyt in 1580 .
See also Peter Martyr map, 1510s Spanish map of the Caribbean
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