Francisco Coello de Portugal y Quesada (Jaén, April 26, 1822[1] - Madrid, September 30, 1898)[2] was a Spanish cartographer and military man.

[2] In 1840, he participated in the final stages of the First Carlist War, in the Maestrazgo region, on the side of General Espartero;[3] his performance was rewarded with the awarding of the Cross of San Fernando in 1841.

[4] The procedure carried out in the elaboration of the maps consisted of the drawing of the sheets by Coello and a later engraving with burin on steel plate, to the detriment of the use of lithographic techniques, which he did use occasionally in his other works of lesser importance.

[9] The governmental subsidy for the elaboration of the Atlas was definitively cut as a result of the publication of the first sheet of the National Topographic Map [es] in 1875, which was the reason why the project was left half-finished.

[1] Thanks to his good relationship with Zarco del Valle [es], Coello obtained access to the funds of the Depósito Topográfico de Ingenieros, where he found cartographic material of interest for his Atlas.

He also believed that the development of a good communications system could constitute a vehicle for bringing Spain and Portugal closer together politically, in line with his Iberianist conviction.

[9] The cadastral project devised by Coello was perhaps too rigorous, detailed, and impracticable, due to its thoroughness and precision;[9] the work carried out took place mainly in municipalities in the province of Madrid.

[17] In this context, Coello's financial problems became evident around 1864, which finally caused him to lose ownership of the property due to debts on January 1, 1869.

[19] In this line of Africanism, it is worth mentioning that he was part, together with the regenerationist Joaquín Costa, of the Spanish Society of Africanists and Colonists, founded in 1883,[20] and whose creation had already been proposed by Coello in 1881.

[5] He was buried in the cemetery of San Justo, in a ceremony attended by Antonio Aguilar y Correa as representative of the Royal Academy of History,[3] as well as by Generals Azcárraga, Polavieja, and Chinchilla [es].