Praeclara Ferdinadi Cortesii de Nova Maris Oceani Hyspania Narratio...

Hernán Cortés, a ruthless and ambitious Spanish military officer, sailed at the head of an expedition to conquer and colonize the territories now known as Mexico, ultimately forcing the Aztec emperor Montezuma to acknowledge himself and his subjects as the vassals of Emperor Charles V of Spain. This elaborate woodcut of Tenochtitlán—present-day Mexico City—that appeared with the Latin printing of Cortés’s second letter to Charles V is the first European depiction of a city in the Americas.

Cortés was awed by the richness and architectural beauty of what he called “this noble city of Temixtitan.” In his letter, he describes the local food in some detail, and perhaps unexpectedly describes the Indigenous peoples’ conduct as “marked by as great an attention to the proprieties of life as in Spain.” Founded two centuries before Cortés’s arrival and boasting intricate urban planning, Tenochtitlán was successfully defended by the Aztecs on the Spaniards’ first attempt to take the city.