Brief History of Iberian Ship Construction (1570-1712)

This brief, volume 2 of 2, examines the construction process of Iberian shipbuilding during the Golden Age of Galleons (1570–1712). Situating it within the broader context of the Scientific Revolution, the work offers a definition and explores the development of Galleons. It offers a comparison of published hull remains. The work also devotes a chapter to 17 th Century Iberian Rigging and includes a preliminary report on the documentation and reconstruction of the Hull Remains of one of the Last Spanish Galleons the San José (1697-1708). By bridging nautical archaeology, intellectual history, history of science and technology, and naval architecture, this work reveals how Iberian shipbuilders contributed to the rationalization of technology and laid the groundwork for the evolution of modern naval engineering. Treating ships as geometric embodiments of motion and proportion, the study illuminates networks linking cosmography, mathematics, philosophy, and craft knowledge, offering a synthesis that challenges established chronologies and equips the field with concepts, sources, and methods to reinterpret the history of shipbuilding. The result is a transdisciplinary account that relocates the origin of “scientific” naval architecture and reveals how maritime technology embodied and triggered the era's philosophical and mathematical innovations.