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The New World Seen as the Old: The 1524 Map of Tenochtitlán

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Emily Godbey
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Extract

As the first European printed image of the Aztec capital, the first European map of the Gulf of Mexico, and the first map to use the names Florida and Yucatan, the 1524 map of Tenochtitlan from Cortes’ second and third letter earned a place in the history of cartography (Figure I). This map, published in Nuremberg to accompany the Latin edition, is commonly mentioned in histories of cartography, but scholarship about this map is relatively general, with the exception of a few historians’ efforts. The prevailing scholarship revolves around its possible authorship, while issues of the map's function and cultural meaning within visual culture are largely missing. In fact, J. Brian Harley notes that the latter type of analysis is rather scarce in most cartographic histories:

What is missing in the history of cartographic literature are studies of the theoretical frameworks which might be appropriate for the reconstruction of such meaning in maps.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 53 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1995

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References

Notes

1 For a thorough description of the Rio del Spin to Santo (the Mississippi) and place names around the Gulf of Mexico in this map, see: Weddle, Robert S., Spanish Sea: The Gulf of Mexico in North American Discovery (College Station, Texas 1985) 159Google Scholar.

2 Toussaint's, Gómez de Orozco's, and Fernández’ study is one of the more detailed discussions of the map. Toussaint, Manuel, Orozco, Federico Gomez de, and Fernandez, Justino, Pianos de la Gudad de Mexico, Sighs XVI y XVII. Estudio Historico, Urbanisticoy Bibliogrdfico (Mexico City 1938)Google Scholar. Irwin Walter Palm's essay hypothesizes about the Cortes’ map as an influence upon Durer's development of an ideal city type. Palm, Irwin Walter, ‘Tenochtitlan y la Ciudad Ideal de Durer’, Journal de la Socute des Americanistes 40 (new series; 1951) 59–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Discussions of the map's possible origin in European or indigenous culture are almost too numerous to mention. Cortes does not specifically mention this map in his letters, he only describes that he had a map drawn by the Aztecs: ‘Likewise I asked Mutesuma to tell me if there was on the coast any river or cove where the ships that came might enter and be safe. He replied that he did not know, but would have them make a map of all the coast for me with all its rivers and coves; and that I should send some Spaniards to see it, and he would give me guides to accompany them; and so it was done. On the following day they brought me a cloth with all the coast painted on it, and there appeared a river which ran to the sea, and according to this representation was wider than all the others.’ Cortés, Hernán, Letters from Mexico, Pagden, Anthony ed. and trans. (New Haven and London 1986) 94Google Scholar. It seems most plausible that a native drew the original map, which was then interpreted by a European wood block cutter. In one way, it hardly matters whether an Aztec or a European drew the original manuscript drawing(s), for it is clear that this drawing(s) went through a second transformation by the German wood block cutter.

As a matter of convenience, this paper will use the term ‘Cortes map’ to refer to this map. My use of this name is in no way a claim for Cortes’ sole authorship of the map, but is instead chosen to be in keeping with previous scholarship.

4 Harley, J. Brian, Maps and the Columbian Encounter (Milwaukee 1990) 29Google Scholar.

5 Alpers, Svedana, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (Chicago 1983) 124Google Scholar.

6 This is by no means a complete list. See Federico Gomez de Orozco's ‘Estudio Bibliográfico’ for a more complete list of works which use the Cortes map as a model. Manuel Toussaint, Federico Gómez de Orozco, and Justino Fernández, Pianos de la Ciudad de México, Sigtos XVI y XVII. Estudio Histórico, Urbanístico y Bibliográfico. As die essay notes, each recopying altered the map in significant ways. The general model remained the same, however, and without the first map, the others would not have appeared the way that they do.

7 Hodgekiss, A.G., Understanding Maps: A Systematic History of their Use and Development (Kent 1981) 11Google Scholar.

8 Jameson, Fredric, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, NC) 52Google Scholar. Werner Heisenberg, the physicist, posited an uncertainty principle about the impossibility of determining both the position and momentum of a subatomic particle (such as the electron) with arbitrarily high accuracy.

9 FromTravels of Praiseworthy Men (1658) by Miranda, J.A. SuárezGoogle Scholar, as quoted in Turnbull, David, Maps are Territories: Science is an Atlas: A Portfolio of Exhibits (Chicago 1993) 2Google Scholar.

10 As quoted in Harley, J.B. and Woodward, David eds, The History of Cartography I (Chicago 1987) xviGoogle Scholar. The original reads: ‘Del Rigor en la Ciencia […]. En aquel Imperio, el Arte de la Cartografia logro tal Perfection que el Mapa de una sola Provincia ocupaba toda una Ciudad, y el Mapa del Imperio, toda una Provincia. Con el tiempo, estos Mapas Desmesurados no satisficieron y los Colegios de Cartografos levantaron un Mapa del Imperio, que tenia el Tamano del Imperio y coincidia puntualmente con el. Menos Adictas al Estudio de la CartografTa, las Generaciones Siguientes entendieron que ese dilatado Mapa era Inutil y no sin Impiedad lo entregaron a las Inclemencias del Sol y de los Inviernos. En los Desiertos del Oeste perduran despedazadas Ruinas del Mapa, habitadas por los Animates y los Mendigos; en todo el Pais no hay otra reliquia de las Disciplinas Geográficas. ( Miranda, Suárez: Viajes de Varcmes Prudentes, libro cuarto, cap. XIV, Lérida, 1658Google Scholar.)’ Borges, Jorge Luis, Historia Universal de la Infamia (Buenos Aires 1954) 131–132Google Scholar.

11 Jameson, , Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 52Google Scholar.

12 The Santa Cruz map of 1550 (now in the University of Uppsala library) is one example of a map of Tenochudan which is almost coeval with the Cortes map. As with the Cortes map, determination of authorship has been one of scholars’ primary concerns. While still commonly called ‘the Santa Cruz map’ and once widely believed to be the product of Alonso de Santa Cruz, the cosmographer to Charles V, I side with those who consider this map a product of Indians’ hands under the direction of Europeans. Both the presence of glyphs and the representation of oppression of dark-skinned people by light-skinned people support this claim. See Elsasser, A.B., The Alonso de Santa Cruz Map of Mexico City and Environs (Berkeley n.d.)Google Scholar; Toussaint, Manuel, El Piano de la Ciudad de Mexico Atribuido a Alonso de Santa CruzGoogle Scholar, Segundo Congreso International de Historia de América, Buenos Aires, (5–14July 1937); Toussaint, Manuel, Orozco, Federico Gómez de, and Fernández, Justino, Pianos de la Ciudad de Mexico, Sighs XVI y XVII: Estudio Historico, Urbanistico y Bibliografico.Google Scholar

13 Elizabeth Hill Boone concurs with reading the map of Tenochtitlan as an isolario-type map: The accompanying map, which has been fundamental to so much later research, shows a circular city and lake according to the conventions of island cartography at the time and has Europeanized buildings.’ But she goes no further with her analysis of the map and its relationship with the isolario mapping convention. Boone, Elizabeth Hill, ‘Templo Mayor Research, 1521–1978’, in: Boone, Elizabeth ed., The Aztec Templo Mayor (Washington DC 1987) 7Google Scholar.

14 Of course, die word ‘orientation’ comes from medieval tradition of having east (orient) at the top of the map.

15 Furthermore, many see the influence of the island in the visual depiction of Thomas More's Utopia. In Bordone's book, the map of Tenochudan is markedly different from all the other maps in the book, for in the Tenochtitlan map, the directions of the winds are not shown and the articulation of the shoreline is different The disparity points strongly to the fact that the artist used the Cortes map as a model. Bernal Diaz del Castillo direcdy compares Tenochtidan to Venice.

16 Palm, Irwin Walter, ‘Tenochudan y la Ciudad Ideal de Diirer’, 64Google Scholar.

17 Bagrow, Leo, History of Cartography (2nd. ed.; Chicago 1964) 64Google Scholar.

18 This aspect of the map which can be seen by turning it around has resulted in many reproductions of the map in which die orientation is not that of die original. See die illustrations of Tenochudan reproduced rotated approximately 130 degrees to die left in Weddle, Robert S., Spanish Sea: The Gulf of Mexico in North American Discovery, 404Google Scholar and in Winsor, Justin ed., Narrative and Critical History of America II (Boston and New York 1886) 364Google Scholar. The Toussaint, Gomez de Orozco, and Fernandez book also rotates the map 90 degrees to die left, perhaps to place north at die top of die map. This is not the only instance in which these maps have been reproduced with an incorrect orientation, as Winsor's footnotes make clear. Cumming, Skelton, and Quinn's, The Discovery of North AmericaGoogle Scholar reproduces this map in yet another orientation. Cumming, W.P., Skelton, R-A., and Quinn, D.B., The Discovery of North America (New York 1971) 68Google Scholar.

19 The Latin accompanying the scale reads: Each large point contains twelve leagues which are halved so that two large points contain twenty five leagues. A league contains four Italian miles so that all the points which are shown here contain one hundred leagues.

20 For a discussion see Weddle, Robert S., Spanish Sea: The Gulf of Mexico in North American DiscoveryGoogle Scholar.

21 Robinson, Arthur H., Early Thematic Mapping in the History of Cartography (Chicago and London 1982) 10Google Scholar.

22 One should note that some mappae mundi were used in a religious context. Recendy, an altarpiece triptych for the Hereford map was found in the former stable on the cathedral grounds. See Bailey, Martin, ‘The Mappa Mundi Triptych: The Full Story of the Hereford Cathedral Panels’, Apollo 137 (1993) 374–378Google Scholar.

23 Pagden, Anthony, TheFall of Natural Man: The American Indian and the Origins of Comparative Ethnology (Cambridge 1982) 6Google Scholar.

24 Cortes, Hernán, Letters from Mexico, Pagden, Anthony ed. and trans. (New Haven and London 1986) 67Google Scholar.

25 Ibidem, 68. Although Cortes compares the buildings to structures in Spain, he compares the Aztec people to African natives.

26 Pagden, Anthony, The Fall of Natural Man: The American Indian and the Origins of Comparative Ethnology, 67–80Google Scholar.

27 See the Irwin Walter Palm, ‘Tenochtitlán y la Ciudad Ideal de Dūrer’.

28 The two people are perhaps some of the congenially handicapped who were cared for by the Aztec state. Their quarters adjoined the imperial zoo.

29 Robinson, Arthur H., Early Thematic Mapping in the History of Cartography, 10Google Scholar.

30 See Elisabeth Boone's ‘Templo Mayor Research, 1521–1978’ for a discussion of the various depictions of the Templo Mayor.

31 Bevan, W.L. and Phillot, H.W., Mediaeval Geography (London 1873) xiii–xivGoogle Scholar. Although it is beyond the reach of the current paper, it would be informative to read the Cortes map through Ezekiel, for the visions of idolatry and destruction of the city seem to parallel the situation with Tenochtitlan.

32 Edgerton, Samuel Y. jr ‘From Mental Matrix to Mappamundi in the Christian Empire: The Heritage of Ptolemaic Cartography in the Renaissance’, in: Woodward, David ed., Art and Cartography (Chicago 1987) 26Google Scholar. Also see Mignolo, Walter D., ‘The Movable Center: Geographical Discourses and Territoriality During the Expansion of the Spanish Empire’, in: Cevallos-Landau, Francisco Javier et al., eds. Coded Encounters: Writing, Gender, and Ethnicity in Colonial Latin America (Amherst 1994) 15–45Google Scholar.

33 Moctezuma, Eduardo Matos, ‘Symbolism of the Templo Mayor’, in: Boone, Elizabeth ed.. The Aztec Templo Mayor (Washington DC 1987) 186Google Scholar.

34 Ibid, 188–189.

35 León-Portilla, Miguel, Altec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind (Norman 1970) 32Google Scholar.

36 Ibid, 32.

37 Harvey, P.D.A., The History of Topographical Maps: Symbols, Pictures, and Surveys (London 1980) 12Google Scholar. Consulting a recent price register for rare and collectable maps will reveal lists and lists of Ptolomy reprints, indicating the volume of material circulated. The number of extant copies of Schedel's book comes from Levinson, Jay A., Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration (Washington, New Haven, and London 1991) 124Google Scholar.

38 Robinson, Arthur H., Early Thematic Mapping in the History of Cartography (Chicago and London 1982) 15Google Scholar.

39 Ibid, 15.

40 Jantz, Harold, ‘Images of America in the German Renaissance’, in: Chiappelli, Fred ed., First Images of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 92Google Scholar. In Mexico, the first printer was a German named Hans Kromberger.

41 Bagrow, Leo, History of Cartography (2nd ed.; Chicago 1964) 91Google Scholar.

42 Edgerton, Samuel Y. jr , ‘From Mental Matrix to Mappamundi in the Christian Empire: The Heritage of Ptolemaic Cartography in the Renaissance’, in: Woodward, David ed.. Art and Cartography (Chicago 1987) 38Google Scholar.

43 It is perhaps relevant to relate that Charles V's great grandfather, Emperor Frederick III, had a motto which could be remembered by the acronym AEIOU: ‘Austria Est Imperare Orbi Universo’ or ‘Alles Erdreich ist Osterreich Untertan". Or as Jantz translates into English, ‘Austria's Empire is Ordained Universal’. Jantz, Harold, ‘Images of America in the German Renaissance’, in: Chiappelli, Fred ed.. First Images of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 93Google Scholar.

44 That there was a power relationship between the pope and Cortes is quite obvious, as the pope could help secure Cortés eternal salvation, even after his sinful actions. Justin Wimor writes, ‘It was this Pope who was so delighted with the Indian jugglers sent to Koine by Cortes. The Conqueror also made His Holiness other more substantial supplications for his favor, which resulted in Cortes receiving plenary indulgence for his and his companions’ sins.’ Justin Winsor ed., Narrative and Critical History of America II, 407.