Details

Subject(s)

• Names, Geographical—Mexico [Browse]
• Rivers—Mexico [Browse]
• Oaxaca (Mexico : State)—Maps, Manuscript [Browse]
• Oaxaca (Mexico : State)—History—16th century—Sources [Browse]
• Mexico—History—Conquest, 1519-1540—Sources [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• Maps—Mexico—Oaxaca—19th century [Browse]
• Linen [Browse]

Contained in

Robert Garrett collection, ca. 1340 B.C.-1900s.

Compiled/​Created

[between 1775 and 1850].

Medium/​Support

Linen? sheet, made of two pieces sewn together. The lienzo is painted in blue, gray, tan, yellow, and perhaps green. The figures are outlined in black ink or with a gray wash. The style of the drawings and the calligraphy of the glosses is late; place glyphs do not reflect the forms used in the 16th century. The Princeton lienzo is a copy or an adaptation of an earlier original and may have been painted in the 18th or even the 19th century.

Linking notes

Forms part of the Robert Garrett Collection (C0744).

Summary note

The lienzo is a map of a region around San Pedro Ixcatlan in the ex-district of Tuxtepec in the Mazatec Indian area of northern Oaxaca, Mexico. At the center is an historical scene and a Nahuatl text that describe the arrival of the Spanish conquistador, Juan Marques, in 1521, the baptism of an Indian lord who took the name of Juan de Mendoza, and an encomendero of the de Nava family, encomenderos of Ixcatlan from about 1546-1603. Several rivers are also shown as are a number of place glyphs and mountains, most of which are glossed in Nahuatl. Near the center is a long text in Nahuatl and elsewhere, particularly around the periphery, are 19 glossed place names, 18 of which are in Nahuatl. Other titles: Lienzo de San Pedro Ixcatlan; San Miguel Soyaltepec; Lienzo de Tuztepec.

Language note

Text in Nahuatl with some Spanish.

Provenance

Early provenance unknown.

Source acquisition

Gift Robert Garrett, 1949.

Publications about

• In his "Apuntes historicos," Mariano Espinosa (1910: 49-68; 1961: 93-107) mentioned and described most of the places represented by glosses on the lienzo as forming part of the Mazatec "Señorio del Sur" (Seignory of the South). His descriptions appear to derive from the lienzo as well as from other sources. Utilizing various lines of evidence Howard F. Cline has located most of these places on a modern map of the Ixcatlan region. Cline has also identified the place shown on the lienzo as a house painted behind the baptismal scene as Ixcatlan, called "Ayizcatl" by Espinosa. Cline named the copy which he studied the "Lienzo de San Pedro Ixcatlan - San Miguel Soyaltepec".
• See also Barbara E. Mundy, "National Cartography and Indigenous Space in Mexico," in Early American Cartographers, edited by Martin Brückner (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 380-388.

Cite as

Garrett Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 19, Manuscripts Division, Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Other title(s)

• San Miguel Soyaltepec
• Lienzo de Tuztepec

In

Robert Garrett Collection, ca. 1340 B.C.-1900s

OCLC

82864795

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...