QA548 - Map of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) as published in the ‘Island Atlas’ of Benedetto Bordone
Fig. 548 (p. 675) - This map of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was first published in the ‘Island Atlas’ of Benedetto Bordone (‘Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel quale si ragiona de tutta l’isole del mondo con liloro nomi antichi y moderni’) published in Venice in 1528.
The collection of maps by Benedetto Bordone (‘Islario’), was published some four years after the Nuremberg map (HARDOY, 1964/1973).
A comparison of ‘La gran città di Temixtitan’ with the earlier map brings curious inconsistencies to light. The Bordone map is a mirror image along a vertical axis of the 1524-map with the Y-forked causeway to the left, the T-shaped causeway to the right and the city of Atacuba in the upper left-hand corner.
One can infer, like the 1524-map, that the north is pointing downwards, since Tacuba (Atacuba), in the upper left-hand corner of the map, is in the southern part of modern Mexico City. Yztapalaya (Ixtapalapa) is then situated, in this ‘upside down’ map, in the north-west, while the present part of Mexico City is located in the south-east. The ‘piazza’ adjacent to the square court of the Templo Major is shifted from the left (east) side (in 1524) to the right side (in 1528). So something must have gone terribly wrong in the drawing or printing room of Bordones’ atlas.
BRICKER, Charles (1969). De glorie van de cartografie. Een geïllustreerd overzicht van kaarten en kaartmakers (Landmarks of Mapmaking, 1968; Sequioia, Lausanne/transl J.G. Baggerman). Elsevier Nederland N.V., Amsterdam/Brussel. Source:
Benedetto Bordone – Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel quale si ragiona de tutta d’isole del mondo con liloro nomi antichi y moderni (Venice, 1528).
HARDOY, Jorge E. (1964/1973). Op. cit. Also as fig. 4.20 (p. 89) in:
KAGAN, Richard L. (2000). Op. cit.
quadralectics.wordpress.com/4-representation/4-1-form/4-1...
QA548 - Map of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) as published in the ‘Island Atlas’ of Benedetto Bordone
Fig. 548 (p. 675) - This map of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was first published in the ‘Island Atlas’ of Benedetto Bordone (‘Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel quale si ragiona de tutta l’isole del mondo con liloro nomi antichi y moderni’) published in Venice in 1528.
The collection of maps by Benedetto Bordone (‘Islario’), was published some four years after the Nuremberg map (HARDOY, 1964/1973).
A comparison of ‘La gran città di Temixtitan’ with the earlier map brings curious inconsistencies to light. The Bordone map is a mirror image along a vertical axis of the 1524-map with the Y-forked causeway to the left, the T-shaped causeway to the right and the city of Atacuba in the upper left-hand corner.
One can infer, like the 1524-map, that the north is pointing downwards, since Tacuba (Atacuba), in the upper left-hand corner of the map, is in the southern part of modern Mexico City. Yztapalaya (Ixtapalapa) is then situated, in this ‘upside down’ map, in the north-west, while the present part of Mexico City is located in the south-east. The ‘piazza’ adjacent to the square court of the Templo Major is shifted from the left (east) side (in 1524) to the right side (in 1528). So something must have gone terribly wrong in the drawing or printing room of Bordones’ atlas.
BRICKER, Charles (1969). De glorie van de cartografie. Een geïllustreerd overzicht van kaarten en kaartmakers (Landmarks of Mapmaking, 1968; Sequioia, Lausanne/transl J.G. Baggerman). Elsevier Nederland N.V., Amsterdam/Brussel. Source:
Benedetto Bordone – Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel quale si ragiona de tutta d’isole del mondo con liloro nomi antichi y moderni (Venice, 1528).
HARDOY, Jorge E. (1964/1973). Op. cit. Also as fig. 4.20 (p. 89) in:
KAGAN, Richard L. (2000). Op. cit.
quadralectics.wordpress.com/4-representation/4-1-form/4-1...