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Tenochtitlan Before the Spanish Conquest.
This woodcut map, created by Benedetto Bordone and first published in 1528, depicts the city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco. The map shows the city's intricate layout, including its central temple complex, residential areas, and the surrounding waterways. Notable landmarks such as the temple (l tempio de honor) and various gardens (il giardino del S.) are marked. Bordone’s map is based on the earlier map of Tenochtitlan that was included in the Second Letter of Hernán Cortés, published in 1524. This earlier map provided one of the first European visual depictions of the city, which Bordone adapted and integrated into his Isolario. The text below the map describes the city and its features in Italian, providing a unique glimpse into the city’s structure before the Spanish conquest.
During this period, Tenochtitlan was often compared to Venice, known as "The Great Venice," due to its impressive architecture and canal system. This comparison, along with the European fascination with the New World, necessitated the inclusion of Tenochtitlan in Bordone’s Isolario, a work that also gave significant attention to Venice itself.
Manuel Toussaint, a Mexican historian who published one of the most thorough studies of the Cortes map and its later iterations, has pointed out some interesting qualities of the Bordone Tenochtitlan map, particularly the changes made to the original 1524 Nuremberg Cortes map:
Bordone's map is copied from the map of Cortes' letter, perhaps from the Venetian edition, but the engraver did not take care to reverse his drawing when cutting it on the woodblock, so the North, which in the original is on the right, is here seen on the left, and the entire orientation is disrupted, such as the two causeways, which initially head towards the Northwest, now go to the Northeast, where Tacuba is, which has switched places with Texcoco... Additionally, the delightfully whimsical representation by the Nuremberg engraver for the houses of the Indians seemed erroneous to the Venetian, without taking into account that the drawing sent by Cortes is viewed from a central point, at the height of the great teocali, with the view of the city appearing to be radiating from and facing this center. Bordone wanted to subject the map to perspective and, taking a single point, the East, as the viewpoint, reformed even the perimeter of the island, which is no longer rounded but irregular... - Planos de la Ciudad de Mexico Siglos XVI y XVII (1938), pages 93-94.
Benedetto Bordone (1460-1531) was a polymath who was born in Padua and worked in Venice. He was an illuminator, engraver, miniaturist, editor, and geographer. It is possible he made the first globe in Italy. His most famous work is the Isolario, or Book of Islands, which included many of the earliest printed maps of islands in the New World.
Bordone, a prominent Venetian manuscript editor, miniaturist, and cartographer, was born in Padua, a city that was then part of the Republic of Venice. Although his exact date of birth remains unknown, historical records indicate that his parents married in Padua in 1442, and he himself was married in 1480. Bordone's contributions to the field of cartography, particularly through his seminal work, Isolario, have cemented his legacy as a pivotal figure in the Renaissance cartographic tradition.
Bordone's most renowned work, Isolario (The Book of Islands), printed in Venice in 1528, is a comprehensive compilation that describes all the known islands of the world. The book offers detailed accounts of each island's folklore, myths, cultures, climates, geographical situations, and historical narratives. It stands as a testament to the popularity of the isolario genre in 15th and 16th century Italy and serves as an illustrated guide for sailors, incorporating the era's latest transatlantic discoveries.
One of the notable features of Isolario is an oval depiction of the world, a map type invented by Bordone. This innovation was later formalized into the equal-area elliptical Mollweide projection three centuries afterward. Bordone's map portrays a distorted view of the New World, showing only the northern regions of South America and depicting North America as a large island labeled Terra del Laboratore (Land of the Worker), a likely reference to the region's active slave trade during that period, which also influenced the name Labrador.
The book also contains the earliest known printed account of Francisco Pizarro's conquest of Peru, making it a significant historical document. Among the numerous woodcut maps included in Isolario, twelve are dedicated to the Americas. These maps feature a plan of "Temistitan" (Tenochtitlan, modern Mexico City) before its destruction by Hernán Cortés, and a map of Ciampagu, the earliest known European-printed map of Japan depicted as an island.
Benedetto Bordone's familial connections are also of interest; he is reputed to have been the father of Julius Caesar Scaliger, a noted classical scholar, and the grandfather of Joseph Justus Scaliger, who is recognized as the founder of the science of historical chronology. The original maps from Bordone's Isolario are highly valued today for their historical significance and intricate craftsmanship. Through his work, Bordone has left an indelible mark on the history of cartography, providing invaluable insights into the geographical knowledge and cultural perceptions of his time.
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