Spanish Colonial Cartography, 1450–1700 David Buisseret
41 • Spanish Colonial Cartography, 1450–1700 David Buisseret In all of history, very few powers have so rapidly acquired The maps of Guatemala are relatively few,7 but those of as much apparently uncharted territory as the Spaniards Panama are numerous, no doubt because the isthmus was did in the first half of the sixteenth century. This acquisi- tion posed huge administrative, military, and political I would like to acknowledge the help of Anne Godlewska, Juan Gil, problems, among which was the problem of how the area Brian Harley, John Hébert, and Richard Kagan in the preparation of this chapter. might be mapped. The early sixteenth-century Spain of the Abbreviations used in this chapter include: AGI for Archivo General Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, initially de Indias, Seville. responded to this problem by establishing at Seville a great 1. Between 1900 and 1921, Pedro Torres Lanzas produced a series of cartographic center whose activities are described in chap- catalogs for the AGI. These have been reprinted under different titles ter 40 in this volume by Alison Sandman. However, as and, along with other map catalogs, are now being replaced by a com- puterized general list. See Pedro Torres Lanzas, Catálogo de mapas y time went by, other mapping groups emerged, and it is planos de México, 2 vols. (reprinted [Madrid]: Ministerio de Cultura, their work that will be described in this chapter. After Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, 1985); idem, Catálogo de considering the nature of these groups, we will discuss mapas y planos: Guatemala (Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, their activities in the main areas of Spain’s overseas Nicaragua y Costa Rica) (reprinted [Spain]: Ministerio de Cultura, Di- possessions.
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