the commercial papers of Catalonia, and from those of the military and naval departments for the said year, 1543." Simancas, August 27, 1825, . Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont, a Spanish soldier, painter, cosmographer, musician, and above all, inventor, registered in 1606 the first patent for a steam machine, so he is credited as the inventor of all kinds of steam machines. Steamboats were in fact not introduced to Spain until 1817. Real Fernando, launched in 1817 and which plied the Guadalquivir River from Sevilla to Sanlucar, was probably the first steamboat built in Spain. She was joined by PS Hope, built at Bristol in 1813. The belated claims made on behalf of Blasco de Garay have since been discredited by the Spanish authorities. The failure to find documentation confirming that letter led to a controversy between French and Spanish scholars. The issue gained such popularity that Honoré de Balzac wrote a comedy, made of five acts, with the theme as an argument entitled Les Ressources de Quinola which premiered in Paris on March 19, 1842 and which tended to be sympathetic to the Spanish claim. References Further reading H. P. Spratt,The Birth of the Steamboat, London, 1958 H. P. Spratt, The Prenatal History of the Steamboat, Newcomen Transactions, Vol.30, 1955–7, page 13. External links Spanish article on history of steam propulsion. 1500 births 1552 deaths Spanish scientists Spanish inventors 16th-century Spanish people