Santa Cruz Map

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>This map is believed to have been made in Mexico and sent to Alonso de Santa Cruz in Spain. After getting possession of the map Alonso de Santa Cruz included a dedicatory written in Latin for the king <a href="/facts/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor/QdqkWAeq">Carlos v</a> and gave it to the king. After this, the exact whereabouts of the map was lost, with the only reference to it being a copy made by Alsonso de Santa Cruz in his <i>Islario general de todas las islas del mundo.</i> The map was rediscovered in Sweden in the Library of the University of Uppsala around the end of the 1880s.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> 
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<h2 id="description">Description</h2>
<p>The exact identity of the material on which the map is on is disputed and there are two major views. One of the earliest scholars to comment was <a href="/facts/Francisco_del_Paso_y_Troncoso/GUkALC5w">Francisco del Paso y Troncoso</a> who claimed that the map consisted of two pieces of animal skin joined together, while Sigvald Linne states that the map is made up of one long strip of <a href="/facts/Parchment/1lqNVkWj">parchment</a>. The map is 1.14 m long and has a width of 78 cm. The map is heavily influenced by European Renaissance landscape maps, but also has a strong indigenous influence. On the map are around 200 toponymic glyphs with only around 120 of these being exactly identified, with some glyphs being given a <a href="/facts/Nahuatl/MTVHtb8U">Nahuatl</a> name written in the latin script. Many are not named though and at times it can be difficult to identify a glyph because of the European influence on them, which can make them look as if they were part of the landscape.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p><p>On the bottom of the map towards the middle there is a <a href="/facts/Double-headed_eagle/yGVEuNTm">Double-headed eagle</a> and on the lower right side there is a dedicatory in Latin for the king. A portion of the dedicatory is cut off and due to the age of the map, the dedicatory has also become illegible.
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<h2 id="orientation-of-the-map">Orientation of the map</h2>
<p>The map is oriented so that the viewer observes the city and Valley of Mexico from the east. North, therefore, is to the right, south to the left, and west at the top of the map. Mexico City occupies the center of the map, drawn enlarged in relationship to the surrounding lakes and countryside, as befits its importance. All the buildings are drawn with their front <a href="/facts/Facades/YPsykMRX">facades</a> facing the east, whether or not that was their actual orientation, so that they can be seen as though the viewer were standing in front of them.
</p><p>Major streets are indicated, such as Tecuba Street. The new <a href="/facts/Mexico_City_Cathedral/Xo9WuHsU">cathedral of Mexico City</a> is shown by the central plaza. Other important edifices include the Viceregal Palace, the churches associated with the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan Orders, and <a href="/facts/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s/fE9mIdW1">Hernán Cortés</a> residence. Each major building had been built utilizing European architecture and is drawn with its characteristic architectural details, such as arches, so that the viewer would have an idea of how it actually appeared.
</p><p>The lakes and marshes surrounding the city are represented accurately as they appeared in relation to the city; not in scale.
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<h2 id="digitization">Digitization</h2>
<p>The map was <a href="/facts/Digitizing/RRdE9Ma9">digitized</a> and annotated by a team from the <a href="/facts/University_of_Art_and_Design_Helsinki/A1h6QKsw">University of Art and Design Helsinki</a> and can be accessed online by the public at the project page.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li>Portilla, Miguel Leon and Aguilera, Carmen (2016) Mapa de Mexico Tenochtitlan y sus contornos hacia 1550. Mexico: Ediciones Era.</li>
<li>El Valle y la ciudad de México en 1550; relación histórica fundada sobre un mapa geográfico, que se conserva en la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Uppsala, Suecia.</li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070717001635/http://www.ub.uu.se/arv/koba/Mexicomap.html">Description and images of the map, at the Uppsala University Library</a></li>
<li><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Sc8wQYn4LrAC&dq=Santa%20Cruz%20Map%20mexico&pg=PA20">Discussion of the map and its origins in "The postclassic to Spanish-era transition in Mesoamerica" at Google Books.</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>León Portilla, Miguel. Mapa de México Tenochtitlan y sus contornos hacia 1550. ISBN 9786074454437. OCLC 987379751. <a href="9786074454437" target="_blank">9786074454437</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>León Portilla, Miguel. Mapa de México Tenochtitlan y sus contornos hacia 1550. ISBN 9786074454437. OCLC 987379751. <a href="9786074454437" target="_blank">9786074454437</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Systems of Representation | Research Group at Aalto University School of Arts and Design and Architecture, Department of Media". Cipher.uiah.fi. Retrieved 2016-02-01. <a href="http://cipher.uiah.fi/mexico_new/index.html" target="_blank">http://cipher.uiah.fi/mexico_new/index.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"Map of Mexico 1550". sysrep.aalto.fi. Retrieved 2019-02-28. <a href="http://sysrep.aalto.fi/mexico/" target="_blank">http://sysrep.aalto.fi/mexico/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Santa Cruz Map open-in-new

Santa Cruz Map