Document Type
Article
Keywords
Aztec maps, Culhua-Mexica, New Spain, Hernán Cortés, Amerindian maps, Tenochtitlan [Tenochtitlán, Temistitan], Mexico, cartography, Pre-Columbian map
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Latin American Languages and Societies | Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Abstract
The map of Tenochtitlan published along with a Latin version of Heman Cortes's letters (Nuremberg, 1524) was the first picture Europeans had of the Culhua-Mexica city, the capital of the Aztec empire. The source of this woodcut map is unknown, and the author argues here that it was based on an indigenous map of the city. Once published in Europe, the city map and its companion map of the Gulf Coast, while certainly documentary, also assumed a symbolic function in supporting Cortes's (and thereby Spain's)just conquest of the Amerindian empire
Publication Title
Imago Mundi, vol. 50 (1998)
Article Number
1005
Publication status
Published; SherpaRomeo status: Green
Publication Date
1998
Recommended Citation
Mundy, Barbara E. “Mapping the Aztec Capital: The 1524 Nuremberg map of Tenochtitlan, Its Sources and Meanings.” Imago Mundi, vol. 50 (1998): 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085699808592877
Comments
Mundy, Barbara E. “Mapping the Aztec Capital: The 1524 Nuremberg map of Tenochtitlan, Its Sources and Meanings.” Imago Mundi, vol. 50 (1998), pp. 1-22.