Source: http://www.gotofino.com/
Vincente Tofiño was born on September 6, 1732 in Cádiz (Spain) and died there in 1795. He was orphaned at the age of fourteen when his father, an army officer, was killed at the Battle of Plasencia on June 15, 1746.
Vincente Tofiño entered the Navy in 1750. By 1755, he had reached the rank of Lieutenant, had taught himself the first fifteen books of Euclid, and had become a specialist in artillery. A subsequent appointment as Teacher of Mathematics at the Naval Academy, also in 1755, began a thirty year naval career in which he climbed to the rank of Brigadier General (Rear Admiral).
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| A potrait of Brigadier Vicente Tofino-San Miguel (source: Naval Museum of Madrid) |
Throughout his military career, Vincente Tofiño acquired his reputation as an astronomer and mathematician. He travelled, extensively, and with much sea duty, in the Mediterranean area, especially Italy. His chief claim to fame as a cartographer and hydrographer was the careful and detailed survey (with officers he trained), between 1783 and 1788, of the ports and coast of Spain, and the North African shore. This fame led to his being frequently consulted by the Ministers of State, and to his election as correspondent of the Spanish Academy of History and of the French and Portuguese Academies of Science.
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| This work of astronomy at the Royal Observatory supposed his election as correspondent of the Académie Royale des Sciences (France). |
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