Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla

JUAN DE LA CRUZ CANO Y OLMEDILLA (Madrid, 1734- 1790).
Engraved map of the Strait of Magellan, late 18th century.
Published in Madrid by the Vda. de Joaquín Ibarra.
Dirt, humidity stains, cracks and wrinkles.
Measurements: 38 x 43 cm (irregular).
Reduced chart of the Strait of Magellan from Pto. de San. Miguel to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean. Built on the observations made in the voyages of 1786 and 1789. From the book "Relación del último Viaje al Estrecho de Magallanes de la Fragata de S. M. Santa María de la Cabeza en los años de 1785 y 1786". Extract of all the previous ones since its discovery and news of the inhabitants, soil, climate and productions of the Strait / Appendix to the relation of the voyage to Magellan of the war frigate Santa Maria de la Cabeza, containing that of the paquebots Santa Casilda and Santa Eulalia to complete the reconnaissance of the strait in the years 1788 and 1789 . Madrid: Printed by the widow of D. Joaquín Ibarra, 1793.
Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla (Madrid, 1734-Madrid, February 13, 1790), was a Spanish geographer, cartographer, engraver and academic of the Enlightenment period. In 1752 the Marquis de la Ensenada, minister of Ferdinand VI of Spain, sent him and Tomás López to Paris to study engraving techniques with Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville. He stayed in France until 1760; there he published a map of the Gulf of Mexico in 1755 together with Tomás López. In 1760 he became a member of the Academy of San Fernando where he was an academician of merit from 1764.