THE HAND-WRITTEN VOCABULARY OF TOMÉ CANO’S<em>ARTE PARA FABRICAR NAOS</em>

Abstract

This study retraces Tomé Cano’s <em>Arte para fabricar, fortificar, y apareiar naos de gverra, y merchante</em>, a text that is among the oldest treatises on shipbuilding, all of which are Spanish. The first part analyses the biographical information available on the author and the content of the vocabulary of specific terms that he included within the text. The second part describes the discovery of the text’s manuscript, of which nobody had spoken until now. The vocabulary, of which one page is missing, is published, and the rest is examined to search for information that may contribute to establishing the time of writing, and provide new biographical information on the author.