His principal work is the Colección de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV (Collection of the voyages and discoveries made by the Spaniards since the late 15th century), a vast work published in five volumes that Navarrete wrote by appointment of the Spanish Crown.

This building currently houses his personal archive, that includes samples of his epistolary relation with some of the most important personalities of the time like Alexander Von Humboldt, Washington Irving or Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos His grandfather was Martin Fernández de Navarrete y Zárate (born 1684 in Navarrete) knight of the order of Calatrava, who married Catalina Ramírez de la Piscina, descendant of the king of Navarre and the Cid .

[1] He entered the navy in 1780 and was later engaged in the unsuccessful operations in 1782 during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, and afterwards in the suppression of Algerine pirates.

Health compelled him for a time to withdraw from active service, but he devoted this forced leisure to historical research, and in 1789 he was appointed by the crown to examine the national archives relating to the maritime history of Spain.

[2] This instability finally led to Martin Fernandez de Navarrete to withdraw from Madrid, and made him participate in the Cortes of Cádiz, in Andalusia, where the new Spanish Constitution was being voted while most of the rest of Spain was under occupation by Napoleon's troops .