Piloto mayor y cosmógrafos de la Casa de la Contratación

The state office that licensed Atlantic pilots and kept the master chart. From 1508 the Casa de la Contratación examined and graded the pilots of the Carrera de Indias, taught them in a salaried chair of cosmography, stamped their compasses and astrolabes, broke the ones that were wrong, and corrected a padrón general from what returning pilots reported. The same code fixed the syllabus, barred the examiner from teaching or selling instruments to candidates, and shut foreigners out of the chair.