Francisco Faleiro and Scientific Methodology at the Casa de la Contratación in the Sixteenth Century.

In this article I examine the development of a scientific methodology in sixteenth-century Spanish nautical science, especially in the context of the Portuguese contributions to that development. I am particularly concerned with the contributions of the Portuguese cosmographer Francisco Faleiro, and with questions why his legacy remains comparatively unexamined when compared with his Spanish and Portuguese contemporaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]