Domingo Fontán Rodríguez Biography

Domingo Fontán Rodríguez

(Santa María de Portas, Pontevedra, 1788-Santiago de Compostela, 1866) Spanish geographer and mathematician, author of the Geometric Letter of Galicia (1845 ).

Trained at the University of Santiago, during the War of Independence (1808-1814), he temporarily held the chair of Logic and Metaphysics of this institution.After the absolutist restoration of Fernando VII, he was persecuted for his liberal ideas, but a few years later he taught again at the University of Santiago, where Fontán was professor of Experimental Physics (1818) and Mathematics (1819).

During the Constitutional Triennium (1820-1823), Domingo Fontán acted as Secretary of the Provincial Board of La Coruña, and after the return of the absolutists to power he was removed from his chair, although a Royal Order of 1826, in which he was considered "purified", allowed him to recover it.From 1835 he directed the Special School of Geographical Engineers and the Astronomical Observatory of Madrid (1835-1840).Deputy to the Cortes for Pontevedra between 1836 and 1843, in his last years he gave technical advice on the construction of the Galician railway network, especially in the works of the Santiago de Compostela-Betanzos-Ferrol railway line (1863).

Domingo Fontán Rodríguez's main geographical work was the Geometric Carta de Galicia , a physical map of the Galician region that consists of twelve plates at a scale of 1: 100,000.Completed in 1834, it was presented that year to the regent María Cristina de Borbón, although its final publication was delayed until 1845 due to difficulties in finding letter engravers.

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