El Nuevo Mundo y la ciencia del clima: el aporte de los cosmógrafos y cronistas españoles en los siglos XVI y XVII

Abstract

In the geographical descriptions of the Spanish cosmographers and chronicles of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, one can detect the first attempts at scientific theorizing about the empirical causes that explain the climate of the torrid and temperate zone of the New World, specifically for the southern hemisphere. In this way, in the works of Pedro Cieza de León and the Jesuits José de Acosta, Bernabé Cobo and Alonso de Ovalle, are presented the first indications of climatic principles deduced through experimentation and proposition of theories to explain the diverse climatic phenomenon observed in the New World. In this sense, these authors developed the first theories about precipitation, the moderating effect of the ocean, the vertical gradient of temperature and atmospheric pressure, and that they have not been sufficiently studied by current historiography.