Thread: referente obligado

la colección está rigurosamente documentada e informatizada y es referente obligado para el estudio de la cartografía

My attempt:

the collection is rigorously documented and digitized and capital reference for the study of the cartography

Yo utilizaría "mandatory reference"...

an essential reference

I would go with mandatory...

I agree that mandatory is probably a more literal translation. But, mandatory carries with it the notion that it is required by a rule or law, and I didn't think in this context that would be true. Essential communicates that it is necessary and invaluable without implying that it needs to be used because of a mandate.

estoy de acuerdo con mariaklec. Y tambien, debe de ser "the study of cartography" (sin "the")

According to the definition for "mandatory", I don't think that it has to be "required by rule or law". At least that's what I understood from Webster's:

Mandatory - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Thanks.

How about "widely accepted reference" or "acknowledged reference" or "highly reliable reference"?