History of Mexico, Volume 1, 1516-1521

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

[456] For a description of the interior see Native Races, ii. 582-8.

[457] Ramirez and Carbajal Espinosa define the limits pretty closely with respect to the modern outline of the city, Hist. Mex., ii. 226-9, and notes in Prescott’s Mex. (ed. Mex. 1845), ii. app. 103; but Alaman, in his Disert., ii. 202, 246, etc., enters at greater length into the changes which the site has undergone since the conquest, supporting his conclusions with quotations from the Libro de Cabildo and other valuable documents.

[458] For further description of streets, buildings, and people, see Native Races, passim. Also Ramirez, Noticias de Mex., etc., in Monumentos Domin. Esp., MS. no. 6, 309-50; Dávila, Continuacion de la Crónica, etc., MS., 296; Viagero Univ., xxvi. 203-6; Libro de Cabildo, MS., 1, 5, 11, 62, 105, 201-2; Sammlung aller Reisebesch., xiii. 459-60, 464-67; Las Casas, Hist. Apolog., MS., 17-27; L’America Settentrionale, 88-207; Mex., Not. Ciudad, 1-8. Venecia la Rica is the name applied to the city by some of the Spaniards. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 339.

A curious view of Mexico is given in the edition of Cortés’ letters issued at Nuremberg in 1524, which exhibits six causeway connections with the mainland. Both in situation, with respect to the surrounding towns, and in the general plan, it accords very fairly with the descriptions of the conquerors. The temple of Huitzilopochtli occupies an immense square in the centre of Temixtitan, as the city is called. Round the south-east corner extend the palace and gardens of the emperor, other palaces being scattered on the lake, and connected with the suburbs by short causeways. Less correct in its relative position is the view presented in the old and curious Libro di Benedetto Bordone, which has been reproduced in Montanus, Nieuwe Weereld, 81, so famous for its cuts, and, of course, with considerable elaborations which by no means promote the correctness, however much the beauty of aspect is improved.

Ancient Mexico. Taken from an Edition of the Letters of Cortés Published at Luxemburg A.D. m.d.xx.viii.

Very similar to this is the view given in some of Solis’ editions, that of Antwerp, 1704, for instance, wherein is also found a view of Mexico with its surrounding towns, as Cuitlahuac, Iztapalapan, and others, all grouped closely together within the main lake! A native plan of the capital, said to have been given by Montezuma to Cortés, accords little with Spanish descriptions, and is difficult to understand from its peculiar outline, illustrated with Aztec hieroglyphics. Alaman doubts its origin and correctness. See Prescott’s Mex. (Mex. ed. 1844), ii. 157. A good copy of it is given in Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., ii. 221.

The view in Libro di Benedetto Bordone, Nel qual si ragiona de tutte l’Isole del mondo, Vinegia, 1528, 73 leaves, is accompanied by an interesting description of La gran citta di Temistitan, remarkable from being perhaps the first sketch of any value given in a cosmographic work. It occupies the greater part of folios vi. to x., devoted to the terra da Ferdinando Cortese. Five more folios describe the West Indies and Venezuela region, the only portions of America known to Bordone when he wrote his book. It was completed in 1521, according to its pontifical license, although not issued till 1528. The versatile author, who figured both as artist and professor, died in 1531, and the later issues of the Libro, henceforth called Isolario, are by editors whose endeavor to keep apace with the demands of the times is instanced by the edition of 1537, wherein appears a letter on the conquest of Peru. In the mappemonde of the first edition before me, the smaller northern part of the new continent is called terra del laboratore, while the southern part bears the inscription ponẽti môdo nouo. The two are separated at the Isthmus, in about the latitude of the Mediterranean, by a long strait, at the eastern mouth of which, on the sectional map of folio vi., is written, stretto pte del mõdo nouo. Farther east lie the islands Astores, Asmaide, and Brasil. The numerous sectional wood-cut maps and plans bear the conventional outline of a series of concave segments, and of the ten referring to different parts of the new world, seven apply to the Antilles.

The clearest account of Mexico given by any of the conquerors is to be found in Relatione d’alcvne cose della Nuoua Spagna, & della gran città di Temistitan Messico, fatta per vn gentil’huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, wherein the description of the natives, their manners and customs, their towns, the resources of the country, and above all, the capital city, is to be found in concise form, arranged in paragraphs with appropriate headings, and illustrated by a cut of the great temple, which appears far more correct than those given by most subsequent writers. A view of the capital is also appended, showing the surrounding country, and according very nearly with those of the Nuremberg type, except in the faulty relative position to the neighborhood. Nothing is known of the author, who is generally referred to as the Anonymous Conqueror, but the opinion has been hazarded that he was Francisco de Terrazas, mayordomo of Cortés. His account was evidently written in Spanish, but did not see the light till Ramusio issued it in Italian under the above title. It forms one of the most valuable documents for the history of Mexico to be found in this prized collection of voyages and travels, the first large work of its class. No branch of literature obtained a greater stimulus from the discovery of Columbus. He it was who broke the barrier which had confined the ardor of voyagers, and who led the revival of maritime enterprise, creating a curiosity among the stayers-at-home that could be satiated only with repeated editions of narratives relating to expeditions and conquests. The number of these narratives became, within a few years, so large as to require their grouping into special collections for the sake of cheapness and convenience. The earliest is probably the Paesi Nouamente retrouati, Et Nouo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio; By Fracanzo or Fracanzano da Montalboddo, Vicenza, 1507, mentioned by Tiraboschi, Storia della literatura italiana. This was reproduced in 1508 by Madrignani, at Milan. According to Panzer, Ruchamer issued the same year a somewhat fuller collection at Nuremberg, under the title of Newe Unbekanthe landte Und eine Newe weldte, with eight pieces, among them the voyages of Columbus, Ojeda, Pinzon, and Vespucci. A similar work was issued by the Italian Angiolelo, in 1519.

The best known of these early collections, and by many regarded as the first issued in German, is the Novus Orbis Regionvm ac Insolarvm Veteribvs Incognitarvm; Basileæ apvd Io Hervagivm, Mense Martio, anno M.D.XXXII., 4to, 584 pages, beside unnumbered leaves. ‘La plus ancienne de ces (Latin) collections,’ says Boucher, Bibl. Univ., i. 55. Although prepared by John Huttich, the canon of Strasbourg, it is better known under the name of Simon Grynæus, who wrote the introductory and revised it at the request of Hervagius, the publisher, a well known bookman, greatly esteemed by Erasmus. Meusel, Bibl. Hist., iii. pt. i. 221, gives it with punctilious fairness the title of Collectio Huttichio-Grynæo-Hervagiana, while others apply only the middle name or the last two. The attribution to Grynæus is greatly due to his fame as a reformer, as the personal friend of Luther and Calvin, as the discoverer of Livy’s lost books, and as the first of a long line of scholars celebrated under that name. It is an excellently printed volume, with quaint head-pieces, and containing as it does so many papers of which the original editions are now lost, the collection must be esteemed of great value. The nineteen pieces of original contributions, journals, and borrowed accounts, include the voyages of Columbus, Alonso, and Pinzon from Madrignani; Alberici Vesputij nauigationum epitome, and nauigationes IIII.; and Petri Martyris de insulis. The other narratives relate to Asia, to the Levant, and to Russia. With some copies is found a mappemonde, but the only genuine one, according to Harrisse, 294, bears the inscription Terra de Cuba, in the northern part of the new world, and in the south, Parias, Canibali America Terra Nova, Prisilia, with the word Asia in large type. Among the several editions the German of 1534, by Herr, is rarer than the above original, while the Dutch of 1563, by Ablijn, is the most complete.