The Map of Mexico by Diego de Cisneros (1618): Territory, Astrology, and Social Conflict

The ‘Descripción de México’ by physician Diego de Cisneros is the oldest known map printed in the Americas. Engraved in New Spain on copper by Flemish artist Samuel Stradanus, it was included in Cisneros’s Sitio, naturaleza y propriedades de la ciudad de México (1618), a treatise on Hippocratic-Galenic medicine published during a time of debate in the viceregal capital over astrological determinism. The map supports the author’s medical theses, which highlight the influence of environmental conditions on human health above astrological factors and reject the supposed effects of birthplace on individual abilities, particularly of American-born Spaniards. However, these meanings were lost when the map was copied and circulated independently of the book. Through analysis of the materiality and context of known versions of this map, including extant copies and apocryphal attributions, this article corrects misattributions and recovers understanding of the ‘Descripción de México’ as a visual instrument for scientific debate and an intervention in seventeenth-century Mexico’s political, social, and astrological discussions.