COLLECTION NAME:
JCB Archive of Early American Images
Record
Accession number:
02174
Record number:
02174-9
JCB call number:
J669 F819e
Image title:
[Founding of Mexico City]
Place image published:
[Nuremberg]
Image publisher:
[Christoph Gerhard, for widow and heirs of Paul Fürst]
Image date:
[1669]
Image function:
plate; pt. 1, following p. 324
Technique:
engraving
Image dimension height:
7.7 cm.
Image dimension width:
13.1 cm.
Page dimension height:
15.8 cm.
Page dimension width:
9.9 cm.
Materials medium:
ink
Materials support:
paper
Description:
Founding of Tenochtitlán or Mexico City. Native American men pole floating gardens on a raft. The raft supports maize, squash, birds, and flowers.
Source creator:
Francisci, Erasmus, 1627-1694
Source Title:
Erasmi Francisci Guineischer und americanischer Blumen-Pusch ...
Source place of publication:
Nürnberg [Nuremberg]
Source publisher:
In Verlegung Paul Fürstens, Kunst- und Buchh. seel: Wittib und Erben. Gedruckt daselbst bey Christoph Gerhard
Source date:
M.DC.LXIX [1669]
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 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. Deriving his material from facts and anecdotes related in other books, Francisci was a prolific and popular writer. The illustrations in his books were copied from other illustrations, mostly from Theodor de Bry. See Theodor de Bry's America. Pt. 9, pt. 3, plate 12. Image placed horizontally on page.
Time Period:
1651-1700
Provenance/Donor:
Acquired in 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:
Agriculture--Mexico
Subject headings:
Aztec mythology
Subject headings:
Indians of Mexico
Subject headings:
Mexico City (Mexico)--History--To 1519
[Founding of Mexico City]
![[Founding of Mexico City]](http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/media/Size3/D0446/04463009.jpg?userid=2&username=jcbadmin&resolution=3&servertype=JVA&cid=1&iid=JCB&vcid=NA&usergroup=JCB-ADMIN&profileid=1)