Atlas Marítimo de España

Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel was a Spanish cosmographer and sailor who, together with officials from the Royal Observatory and students at the Royal Company of Midshipmen, wrote the Atlas Marítimo de España, which was published by the Hydrographic Depot in Madrid between 1786 and 1789. Tofiño and his colleagues devoted themselves to traveling the Spanish coasts in search of information to study and record the shoreline properly.

It was created at the end of the 18th century on the orders of King Charles III, as at the time there were no reliable maps of the Spanish coastline, making navigation difficult. Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, Captain General of the Spanish Royal Navy and Secretary of State for the Universal Office of the Navy and Indies, led the creation of a "hydrographic map" of Spain like the one already made of France.

The map contained the demarcations of all Spanish ports and coastlines making it the most in-depth national hydrography project at that time. The data collection methods used were modern and international, combining fieldwork on land and at sea.