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410 Miguel Ángel de Bunes Ibarra

when they were required, whether they were old or new . Costs rose
35
exponentially once they had to procure gunpowder, harquebuses, and
the hundreds of other things that a fleet required before it was fully
functional . Because this was an official imperial campaign, all ships
36
were required to display the emperor’s arms and insignia, thereby
increasing the cost of the expedition, since new flags and pennants
had to be made, and painters and designers were commissioned to
design and paint the emperor’s coat of arms and other insignia. All
these decorative elements had to be paid for. It is surprising that the
emperor should have felt the need to repeat orders so that this was
done . Painters in Barcelona were the first to paint the emperor’s
37
moto, Plus Ultra, in the pennants and flags, many of which also
displayed the imperial two-headed eagle.
Thanks to Rena’s accounts we also know the names of the galleys
built in Barcelona in 1534 and 1535 which were incorporated into the
Spanish squadron: Esperanza (Hope), Monte Calvario (The Mount of
Calvary), La Garza (The Heron), Victoria (Victory), Toro (The Bull),
Leona (The Lioness), Princesa (Princess), La Envidia (Envy) and San
Marcos (Saint Mark). The four galleys allocated to the transport of
horses belonged to Genoese captains: Baltasar Ranascero, Bernardino
Pagia and Baptista Justianiani commanded one apiece; captain
Vicencio Sent was in charge of the Galley San Nicolás.
Barcelona provided much of what was required by these ships,
although a good deal of what was required to victual the fleet had to
be brought over from Genoa. Both ports provided the cloth necessary
to make the sails as well as other items. The documentation extant in
Pamplona leaves no doubt as to the fact that the entire Spanish galley

35 P. Fondevila Silva, J.J. Sánchez Baena, Las galeras de la Monarquía Hispánica:
elemento fundamental del poder naval durante el siglo XVI, in A. Alvar Ezquerra, J.I.
Ruiz Rodríguez (eds.), Túnez 1535 cit., pp. 91-119; F.F. Olesa Muñido, La galera en la
navegación y el combate, Ariel, Barcelona, 1972.
36 «Que se haze cargo al dicho Antonio Botto de doszientas y quarenta bolsas de
arcabuz que he recibido de Diego de Carvajal, cintero, que del se compraon para
provisión de galeras, … que se le reciben en quenta quarenta bolsas que dio a una de
las cinco galeras nuevas que se consiganron a don Álvaro con quarenta arcabuzes de
que capitán Simón de Fina», Argn, Ap Rena, 76, n. 16, f. 151r, Cargo de bolsas de cuero
de arcabuz.
37 «Cargo de banderas: Que se haze cargo al dicho Antonio Botto de doszientas y
dieciocho banderas que recibio de ciertos pintores, vecinos de Barcelona, que de ellos
se compraron como parece por nómina de xxiiii de março, y entre las dichas banderas
uvo dieciocho tallamares». The document specifies that thirty-six of them were given to
the five new galleys, and the rest, which were to complete the 218 that had been
commissioned, were distributed among the rest of the Spanish fleet. This suggests that
there was an average of eighteen decorated flags per galley. Argn, Ap Rena, 76, n. 16, f.
155r, Cargo de banderas de las cuentas de Luis del Puerto.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)