Preview
Document Type
StillImage
Contributing Institution
Maine State Archives
Identifier
BMC-7 p.19
Description
Hispaniae Novae Nova Descriptio; Gerhard Mercator & Jodocus Hondius, mapmakers; published in Amsterdam circa 1606
Map of Mexico from the Mercator-Hondius Atlas Sive Cosmographicae.
The map shows the lands gifted to Hernan Cortes for his service to the Spanish Crown and the lands further west to the Pacific. They are thick with place names; there are so many, in fact, that some had to be indicated with a letter and named in lists at sea.
Another list of names is in a rectangular cartouche in the bottom right corner. Cities and towns are marked with dots, a building, or a cluster of buildings according to their size and importance. Squares with a dot in the middle, most in the northeast, mark the location of Spanish barracks. A note there reads, “The encampments of the Spanish, where their armed soldiers roam.”
Broad Creation Date
circa 1606
Dimensions
18" x 22.25"
Language
Latin
Other Location
Mexico
Keywords
Cartography; Maps