COLLECTION NAME:
JCB Archive of Early American Images
Record
Accession number:
09187
Record number:
09187-11
JCB call number:
J590 B915v GVG 9 / 2-SIZE
Image title:
Wie die Mexicaner durch ihren Abgott gelentet und geführet worden.
Place image published:
[Frankfurt am Main]
Image publisher:
[Wolffgang Richter]
Image date:
[1601]
Image function:
illustration; pt. 3, plate 12
Technique:
engraving
Image dimension height:
14.6 cm.
Image dimension width:
18.9 cm.
Page dimension height:
35.3 cm.
Page dimension width:
23.3 cm.
Materials medium:
ink
Materials support:
paper
Languages:
German
Description:
Founding of Tenochtitlán or Mexico City. An eagle devours a bird while perched on a tree beside a river. Native Mexicans bow down before the eagle. Other men pole floating gardens on a raft down the river. The raft contains maize, squash, birds, and flowers. Others carry an idol to the riverbanks and build a dwelling.
Source Title:
[America. Pt 9. German] Neundter und Letzter Theil Americae ...
Source place of publication:
Franckfurt am Mayn [Frankfurt am Main]
Source publisher:
Bey Wolffgang Richter
Source date:
[1601]
notes:
Text describes the founding of Mexico City. The Aztecs or Mexica, guided by the prophecies of Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war), ended their migration by building Tenochtitlán, on an island in a lake where an eagle held a snake perched on a flowering nopal cactus. The cactus grew, according to their mythology, from the heart of Copil, son of Huitzilopochtli's sister, which had been flung onto the island. The Aztecs created artificial islands called chinampas which were made by piling earth from the bottom of Lake Texcoco onto rafts made of weeds. After a while, the roots of the plants and trees grew down to the lake bottom, creating new farmland. This work contains three different voyages; Pt. 1 is José de Acosta, Historie naturael ende morael van de Westersche Indien, Haarlem, 1598; Pt. 2 is Barent Janszoon Potgieter, Wijdtloopigh verhael van tgene de vijf schepen, Amsterdam, 1600, here entitled Relatio historica; the appendix and Pt. 3 is Olivier van Noort, Beschryvinghe van de voyagie, Rotterdam & Amsterdam, 1602, here entitled Additamentum nonae partis Americae. Theodor de Bry's America. Pt. 9. German.
Time Period:
1601-1650
Provenance/Donor:
Acquired before 1865.
Owner and copyright:
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area:
Spanish America
Subject Area:
Artifacts, industry, and human activities
Subject Area:
Indigenous peoples
Subject headings:
Mexico City (Mexico)
Subject headings:
Aztec mythology
Wie die Mexicaner durch ihren Abgott gelentet und geführet worden.
