Praeclara Ferdina[n]di. Cortesii de noua maris oceani Hyspania narratio sacratissimo. ac inuictissimo Carolo Romanoru[m] Imperatori semper Augusto, Hyspaniaru[m], [etc] Regi Anno Domini. M.D.XX. transmissa : in qua continentur plurima scitu, [et] admiratione digna circa egregias earu[m] p[ro]uintiaru[m] vrbes ... potissimu[m]q[ue] de celebri ciuitate Temixtitan variisq[ue] illi[us] mirabilib[us], qu[a]e lege[n]te[m] mirifice delectabu[n]t,
A 1524 Latin letter by conquistador Hernán Cortés describing New Spain and Tenochtitlan, printed in Nuremberg by Friedrich Peypus and addressed to Emperor Charles V. The pictures are black-and-white woodcuts: a heraldic coat of arms with eagles and garlands, a papal portrait in a roundel, a bird's-eye plan of the Aztec city within lake and causeways, and a shield framing a plant. A designer might take the dense, ornamented border work and the radial city plan as models for historical map and heraldic layouts.
![Picture 1 of 4 from Praeclara Ferdina[n]di. Cortesii de noua maris oceani Hyspania narratio sacratissimo. ac inuictissimo Carolo Romanoru[m] Imperatori semper Augusto, Hyspaniaru[m], [etc] Regi Anno Domini. M.D.XX. transmissa : in qua continentur plurima scitu, [et] admiratione digna circa egregias earu[m] p[ro]uintiaru[m] vrbes ... potissimu[m]q[ue] de celebri ciuitate Temixtitan variisq[ue] illi[us] mirabilib[us], qu[a]e lege[n]te[m] mirifice delectabu[n]t, (1524), leaf 8](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/ia-praeclaraferdina00cort-8-0.webp)
![Picture 2 of 4 from Praeclara Ferdina[n]di. Cortesii de noua maris oceani Hyspania narratio sacratissimo. ac inuictissimo Carolo Romanoru[m] Imperatori semper Augusto, Hyspaniaru[m], [etc] Regi Anno Domini. M.D.XX. transmissa : in qua continentur plurima scitu, [et] admiratione digna circa egregias earu[m] p[ro]uintiaru[m] vrbes ... potissimu[m]q[ue] de celebri ciuitate Temixtitan variisq[ue] illi[us] mirabilib[us], qu[a]e lege[n]te[m] mirifice delectabu[n]t, (1524), leaf 14](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/ia-praeclaraferdina00cort-14-0.webp)
![Picture 3 of 4 from Praeclara Ferdina[n]di. Cortesii de noua maris oceani Hyspania narratio sacratissimo. ac inuictissimo Carolo Romanoru[m] Imperatori semper Augusto, Hyspaniaru[m], [etc] Regi Anno Domini. M.D.XX. transmissa : in qua continentur plurima scitu, [et] admiratione digna circa egregias earu[m] p[ro]uintiaru[m] vrbes ... potissimu[m]q[ue] de celebri ciuitate Temixtitan variisq[ue] illi[us] mirabilib[us], qu[a]e lege[n]te[m] mirifice delectabu[n]t, (1524), leaf 111](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/ia-praeclaraferdina00cort-111-0.webp)
![Picture 4 of 4 from Praeclara Ferdina[n]di. Cortesii de noua maris oceani Hyspania narratio sacratissimo. ac inuictissimo Carolo Romanoru[m] Imperatori semper Augusto, Hyspaniaru[m], [etc] Regi Anno Domini. M.D.XX. transmissa : in qua continentur plurima scitu, [et] admiratione digna circa egregias earu[m] p[ro]uintiaru[m] vrbes ... potissimu[m]q[ue] de celebri ciuitate Temixtitan variisq[ue] illi[us] mirabilib[us], qu[a]e lege[n]te[m] mirifice delectabu[n]t, (1524), leaf 115](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/ia-praeclaraferdina00cort-115-0.webp)