Carte de la Vallée de Mexico

Antique map of the Valley of Mexico, produced by the Enlightenment scientist Alexander von Humboldt. It represents the territory located in the centre of the country with its cities, towns, haciendas, mountains and lakes. The points where Humboldt made astronomical observations of latitude and longitude and trigonometric measurements are also indicated. He made these measurements from various points such as the cathedral, Chapultepec, the Peñol de los Baños, Chalco, the mountain of El Chicle, Huehuetoca and Tizayuca, among others. He conceived the project of making the chart of the Valley, fixing its limits by means of astronomical observations and geodesic and barometric measurements. In his Atlas he mentioned that there existed no map that gave an account of the true form of the Valley and that those that had been made recently did not constitute updated topographic charts, having been based on an old 17th-century plan by Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora. This map summarises all the knowledge in geographical, mathematical and astronomical matters that was held up to that moment of this region. This original map was produced to be included in the Atlas Geographique et Physique du Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne, a monumental work by Humboldt, which he made as a product of his five-year research voyage through the Americas (1799-1804). The development of the scientific methods of the late 18th century is clearly reflected in Humboldt’s work for the Atlas Geographique, for which it is justly considered an achievement of modern Enlightenment cartography. Map 39 x 46 cm. Margin 58 x 86 cm.