Voyages of a 17th-Century Map of Buenos Aires: From Spies and Sailors to Printers and Scholars

The proposed paper will present the long and rich life span of a city map of Buenos Aires and its changing settings, by following the many editions of a map first drawn by a French military engineer, Barthelemy de Massiac, that stayed as a prisoner in the city between 1660 and 1662. This example helps to further questions referring to the problem of stability / instability of maps. How do copies and adaptation to different supports or media affect their alleged unicity? How do they travel and what are the effects of their journeys?  The problem may be addressed on the basis of the works on sociology of culture and science by Pierre Bourdieu, and on the history of the book and print culture by Roger Chartier. Although they don´t specifically study maps, their views add to the social and cultural approach to maps of the now classical critical studies in history of cartography by John B. Harley and David Woodward, among others. In this respect, Bourdieu stressed that ideas, books especially (as well as, it can be added, images and maps), travel without their context of production, through appropriations, translations and editions that sustain their circulation in space and, I also add, in time. The work of Roger Chartier also offers ground for this claim, as do his more recent work about images and their life in manuscripts, print and digital records and production. On a more epistemological perspective, attention to these changing supports, media and audiences contributes to rethink Bruno Latour’s definition of maps as immutable mobiles that sustained the making of modern science. I intend to address these issues presenting an example of the many copies, versions, printing of a map and its consequent storing, selling, circulating, archiving and studying, that show both the persistence and mutability of maps in shifting scenarios and readership. Briefly, the map drawn in 1669 by de Massiac lived a broad and long life, travelling from drawing desk to shelves, from print to books, from geography to antiquarianism and tourism, from urbanism to history, along at least 15 different versions and supports made until 1981, always surrounded by doubts about its trustworthiness yet at the same time used as a virtual logotype for the earlier stages of the city of which no other plans survive. Much later, pursue in French archives helped restore its original status as part of a military plan. The significance of recovering its original condition is more fully grasped when we put it into the perspective of its changing appropriations and journeys in time, place and varying scholarship

Figurations of the suburbs. Commercial maps and metropolitan growth in Greater Buenos Aires, 1940-1950

[ES] Acompañando la expansión y los procesos de producción de suelo urbano que atravesó el Gran Buenos Aires durante la primera mitad del siglo XX, se destaca la labor de un grupo de “agrimensores del suburbio” que trabajaron en el contexto de un creciente mercado inmobiliario. Este artículo presenta las cartografías de Máximo Randrup (1880-1954), las mismas llaman la atención sobre el creciente mercado para una cartografía urbana mercantil, a la vez que disparan interrogantes acerca de qué y cómo muestran la expansión, en contraste con lo que despliegan las cartografías oficiales.Las primeras aproximaciones en torno al tema dan cuenta de que se trata de imágenes que representan un territorio continuo y urbanizado, que suma trazados de loteos y proyectos que aún no se materializaban en esos años. Y que incluso, décadas más tarde, las nuevas cartografías no han permitido verificar. Lo que se aprecia es que algunos de estos barrios y proyectos dibujados, nunca llegaron a consolidarse en el te[EN] During the first half of the twentieth century, Greater Buenos Aires underwent a process of extensive urban land production and expansion. Accompanying the above there was the work of a group of surveyors of suburban land in a scenario of a booming real estate market. This paper introduces the cartographies of Maximo Randrup (1880-1954).Those draw our attention to a growing market of commercial urban cartographies while triggering some questions about which and how urban growth is shown in contrast with official maps. First approaches to the subject account for images which represent a continuum of urbanized territory, incorporating street network patterns from subdivisions and developments which had not yet crystallized in those years, and which could not be corroborated even decades later, from the newer cartographies. What is observed is that some of those developments drawn on paper never really unfolded in the territory.Favelukes, G.; Gómez Pintus, A.; Novick, A. (2019). Figuraciones del suburbio. Mapas comerciales y expansión metropolitana en el Gran Buenos Aires, 1940-1950. EGA Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica. 24(37):156-167. https://doi.org/10.4995/ega.2019.10952OJS1561672437Aliata, F y Loyola, O. 2010. Transformaciones en el hábitat rural. Los planos topográficos de Chascomús, 1826 - 1854. Mundo Agrario, Vol.10 n° 20, septiembre. Pp1-25Barthes, R. 1980. La cámara lúcida. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Paidós.Burke, P. 2001. Visto y no visto. El uso de la imagen como documento histórico. Barcelona: Crítica.Caride, H. 1977. La construcción de una idea: El Conurbano Bonaerense, 1925-1947. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas "Mario J. Buschiazzo" FADU, UBA, Colección Crítica n° 76.Chioza, E. 1983. "La integración del Gran Buenos Aires". En, Romero, J, L. (comp.) Buenos Aires, historia de cuatro siglos. Buenos Aires: Editorial Abril. Pp.421-449Clichevsky, N. 1975. El mercado de tierras en el área de la expansión de Buenos Aires y su incidencia sobre los sectores populares, período 1943-1973. Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Regionales, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella.Gómez Pintus, 2018. Las formas de la expansión 1910 - 1950. Barrios Parque y loteos de fin de semana en la construcción del espacio metropolitano de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Área Editorial FAU y Diseño. http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/26621Harley, J. 2005. La nueva naturaleza de los mapas. Ensayos sobre la historia de la cartografía. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Harley, J. y Woodward, D (eds.) 1987. The History of Cartography. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Vol.1.Lois, C. 2014. Mapas para la Nación. Episodios en la Historia de la Cartografía en Argentina. Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos.Mazzitelli Mastricchio, M. 2017. "Paisajes montados. El uso de vistas, bosquejos, notas, fotografías y otros insumos visuales para la traducción de información topográfica en la cartografía topográfica de la Dirección Nacional de Minas, Geología e Hidrología", tesis doctoral, FFyL, UBA. http://repositorio.filo.uba.ar/handle/filodigital/6098Novick, A; Favelukes, G y Vecslir, L. 2005. Mapas, planes y esquemas en la construcción del Gran Buenos Aires. Revista Anales del IAA, n ° 45, Sentidos de la imagen. Pp. 55-72. http://www.iaa.fadu.uba.ar/ojs/index.php/anales/article/view/162Pousin, F. 2005. Figure de la ville et construction des savoirs. Architecture, urbanisme, géographie. Pousin, F. ed., Paris: CNRS Editions. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionscnrs.4267Sargent, Ch. 1974. The Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1870-1930. Arizona: Arizona State University.Schwartz, J. y Ryan, J. 2003. Picturing Place. Photography and the Geographical Imagination. Londres-New York: Routledge.Torres, H. 1993. El mapa social de Buenos Aires. 1940-1990 (Serie Difusión, No. 3). Buenos Aires: Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo.Van Damme, S., 2005. Les sciences humaines à l'épreuve de la ville: les enjeux d'une archéologie des savoirs urbains (XVIIe-XXe siècles). Revue d'Histoire des Sciences Humaines, 1(12), pp.3-15. https://doi.org/10.3917/rhsh.012.0003 [Accessed March 23, 2014].Vapñarsky, C. 2000. La aglomeración Gran Buenos Aires. Expansión espacial y crecimiento demográfico entre 1869 y 1991. Buenos Aires: Eudeba.Yuvnovsky, O. 1971. La estructura interna de la ciudad. El caso latinoamericano. Buenos Aires: SIA

The construction of territory: looks, measurements, drawings in the history of Buenos Aires

¿Qué rol jugaron las imágenes y los gráficos en la historia de la ciudad? ¿Qué relaciones podemos encontrar entre la forma de la ciudad y los gráficos que intentaron dar cuenta de ella? Este trabajo presenta algunos episodios históricos que contribuyen a reflexionar sobre las relaciones entre visualizar, dibujar e intervenir en el territorio. En efecto, numerosos y diversos actos de ver y medir terminan por encontrar su lugar en los gráficos. Sin embargo, los debates y las desautorizaciones que rodean a muchos de ellos ponen de manifiesto el carácter inestable de estas representaciones. Presentaremos en un repaso más impresionista que sistemático, algunos episodios en los que la mirada y el dibujo desempeñan un lugar destacado en la construcción del territorio, en el caso específico de la modernidad temprana de Buenos Aires. Se trata de dar cuenta de tres cuestiones: que para llegar a una visualización sinóptica de la ciudad, se suceden numerosos actos de mirar y medir, en los que se ponen en juego habilidades adquiridas; que esos resultados se trasladan de papel en papel, en versiones sucesivas de los cuales los planos impresos son sólo una parte; que estas instancias permiten comparar, compartir, transmitir y tomar decisiones en base a los dibujos que actúan como análogos de la ciudad. Con estos objetivos, revisamos algunos escenarios que sugieren los modos en que se visualizaba la ciudad durante los inicios de la modernización, especialmente en los trabajos de mejora de las infraestructuras viales y de la definición de la forma de su trazado.What role occupied the images and graphics in the history of the city? What sort of relationships can be found between the shape of the city and the graphics that tried to account for it? This paper presents some historical episodes seeking to contribute to a reflection on the relationship between visualizing, drawing and acting in the territory. Indeed, many different acts of seeing and measuring end to find their place in maps and charts. However, the discussions and disclaimers surrounding many of them show the unstable nature of these representations. We will present in a more impressionistic than systematic overview, some episodes in which sight and drawing played prominently in the construction of the territory, in the specific case of early modern Buenos Aires. This is to account for three issues: that to achieve a synoptic view of the city, numerous acts of looking and measuring converge, which come into play on the basis of acquired skills; that these results are moved from paper to paper, in successive versions of which the printed plans are just one part; and that these instances let you compare, share, communicate and make decisions based on the drawings that serve as analogs of the city. . For these objectives, we review here some scenarios that suggest the ways in which the city was visualized during the beginnings of modernization, especially in the works of improving road infrastructure and the definition of the shape of its pattern.Peer Reviewe

Cartographic licenses, scale games, imprecise frontiers: Street map publishing for an expanding city

La expansión de la ciudad durante el siglo XIX amplió notablemente la producción y circulación de planos callejeros. En ese universo visual novedoso se pusieron en juego alternativas gráficas distintas de los procedimientos definidos en las instituciones cartográficas estatales. En este artículo presentamos de manera exploratoria algunas de esas alternativas sobre la base de planos de Buenos Aires. Nos interesa resaltar la amplia paleta de soluciones gráficas, visuales y editoriales utilizadas para dar a conocer las formas de orientarse en la ciudad. Revisamos, en primer lugar, los formatos y marcos de producción de los mapas callejeros en relación con la cultura impresa y visual del período. En segundo lugar, observamos los métodos utilizados para trazar la silueta de la ciudad y su articulación con las tensiones inherentes entre el espacio delimitado administrativamente y el crecimiento de ocupación urbana. En tercer lugar, hacemos foco en algunas innovaciones y exploraciones visuales que ofrecen soluciones a los dilemas de la concentración de datos en espacios limitados, pero a la vez espacios de juegos figurativos que, proponemos, fueron parte del despliegue urbano.Urban expansion during the nineteenth century drastically increased production and circulation of street maps. In this new visual universe, various graphic alternatives came into play, most of them different from procedures sanctioned by State cartographic institutions. In this article, we explore some of these alternatives, based on Buenos Aires maps. Particularly, we aim to point out the wide array of graphic, visual and editorial solutions set in motion as aids to guide oneself in the city. Firstly, we inspect the diverse formats and production frameworks of these street maps, in relation with the print and visual culture of the time. Secondly, we observe the methods used to display the urban planimetric shape, in articulation with inherent tensions between administratively delimited space and urban occupation growth. Thirdly, we focus on some visual innovations and explorations that offer solutions for data concentration in limited spaces, as well as the figurative game spaces which were also a part of the urbanization processFil: Favelukes, Graciela Noemí. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigación Estéticas "Mario Buschiazzo"; Argentin

Los bordes de la región de Buenos Aires

El articulo efectúa una revisión de los bordes, mutables e inestables, que marcan los márgenes de la urbanización de Buenos Aires, recurriendo a una historia de larga duración que ilumina como se fueron construyendo como temas problema en los diferentes escenarios históricos, considerando los tipos de debates especializados que suscitaron, las modalidades de control e intervención que se pusieron en marcha y las cartografías mediante las cuales se representaron.  Partimos del supuesto que los bordes son un pertinente prisma para dar cuenta de los dilemas que plantea la expansión urbana. Desde esta perspectiva, se trata de revisitar las miradas urbanísticas, los conflictos del crecimiento así como los mapas que, según planteamos, permiten restituir algunos de los múltiples hilos que se entrecruzan y se superponen -mas que se suceden- a lo largo de la historia. A los efectos de dar cuenta de la problemática, proponemos caracterizar los bordes de la urbanización de Buenos Aires en torno de cuatro momentos cronológico-problemáticos: “ciudad cerrada y jerarquizada”, “ciudad ampliada”, “ciudad, área, región…”, y “heterogeneidades, metáforas e incertidumbres”.

Early recognition in the <i>Rhizobium meliloti</i>-alfalfa symbiosis: root exudate factor stimulates root adsorption of homologous rhizobia

Adsorption of Rhizobium meliloti to alfalfa roots before their infection and nodule formation shows the specificity of the symbiotic association (G. Caetano-Anolles and G. Favelukes, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 52:377-382, 1986). The time course of specific adsorption of R. meliloti (103 to 104 cells per ml) to roots shows an initial lag period of 3 h, suggesting that either or both symbionts must become conditioned for the adsorption process. Preincubation of R. meliloti L5-30 for 3 h with dialyzed alfalfa root exudate (RE) markedly increased early adsorption of rhizobia to alfalfa roots. The activity in RE was linked to a nondialyzable, thermolabile, trypsin-sensitive factor(s), very different from the root-exuded flavonoid compounds also involved in early Rhizobium-legume interactions. The lack of activity in the RE from plants grown in 5 mM N03⁻ suggested its negative regulation by the nitrogen nutritional status of the plant. Preincubation of R. meliloti with heterologous clover RE did not stimulate adsorption of rhizobial cells to roots. A short pretreatment of RE with homologous (but not heterologous) strains eliminated the stimulatory activity from solution. The stimulation of adsorption of R. meliloti to alfalfa roots was strongly dependent on the growth phase of the rhizobia, being greater at the late exponential stage. Nevertheless, the capacity of R. meliloti L5-30 to eliminate from solution the stimulatory activity in RE appeared to be constitutive in the rhizobia. The low concentration of rhizobial cells used in these experiments was critical to detect the stimulation of adsorption. The early interaction of spontaneously released alfalfa root macromolecular factor(s) and free-living R. meliloti, which shows the specificity and regulatory properties characteristic of infection and nodulation, would be an initial recognition event in the rhizosphere which triggers the process of symbiotic association.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Stimulation of adhesiveness, infectivity, and competitiveness for nodulation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum by its pretreatment with soybean seed lectin

Soybean seed lectin stimulates adsorption of Bradyrhizobium japonicum to its host roots. Pretreatment of the rhizobia with soybean seed lectin for at least 6-12 h previous to their interaction with the plants was required to detect the stimulatory effect. This activity could be observed with as few as 1000 soybean seed lectin molecules per bacterium, and required specific carbohydrate binding. Infectivity and competitiveness for nodulation were also stimulated by preincubation of the rhizobia either with soybean seed meal extract or soybean seed lectin, the extract being more effective in enhancing competitiveness.Instituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia MolecularFacultad de Ciencias Exacta

Improved soybean root association of N-starved Bradyrhizobium japonicum

In this study, we addressed the effects of N limitation in Bradyrhizobium japonicum for its association with soybean roots. The wild-type strain LP 3001 grew for six generations with a growth rate of 1.2 day-1 in a minimal medium with 28 mM mannitol as the carbon source and with the N source [(NH4)2SO4] limited to only 20 μM. Under these conditions, the glutamine synthetase (GS) activity was five to six times higher than in similar cultures grown with 1 or 0.1 mM (NH4)2SO4. The NtrBC-inducible GSII form of this enzyme accounted for 60% of the specific activity in N-starved rhizobia, being negligible in the other two cultures. The exopolysaccharide (EPS) and capsular polysaccharide (CPS) contents relative to cell protein were significantly higher in the N-starved cultures, but on the other hand, the poly-3-hydroxybutyrate level did not rise in comparison with N-sufficient cultures. In agreement with the accumulation of CPS in N-starved cultures, soybean lectin (SBL) binding as well as stimulation of rhizobial adsorption to soybean roots by SBL pretreatment were higher. The last effect was evident only in cultures that had not entered stationary phase. We also studied nodC gene induction in relation to N starvation. In the chromosomal nodC::lacZ fusion Bj110-573, nodC gene expression was induced by genistein 2.7-fold more in N-starved young cultures than in nonstarved ones. In stationary-phase cultures, nodC gene expression was similarly induced in N-limited cultures, but induction was negligible in cultures limited by another nutrient. Nodulation profiles obtained with strain LP 3001 grown under N starvation indicated that these cultures nodulated faster. In addition, as culture age increased, the nodulation efficiency decreased for two reasons: fewer nodules were formed, and nodulation was delayed. However, their relative importance was different according to the nutrient condition: in older cultures the overall decrease in the number of nodules was the main effect in N-starved cultures, whereas a delay in nodulation was more responsible for a loss in efficiency of N-sufficient cultures. Competition for nodulation was studied with young cultures of two wild-type strains differing only in their antibiotic resistance, the N-starved cultures being the most competitive.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Host-Symbiont Specificity Expressed during Early Adsorption of <i>Rhizobium meliloti</i> to the Root Surface of Alfalfa

Early (4 h) adsorption of Rhizobium melioti L5-30 in low numbers to alfalfa roots in mineral solution was examined for competition with other bacterial strains. All tested competitor strains decreased the adsorption of L5-30 by extents which depended on the strain and its concentration. The decrease of adsorption by R. meliloti competitors (all of them infective in alfalfa) was nearly complete at saturation (97 to 99% decrease). AU other heterologous rhizobia and Agrobacterium tumefaciens at saturating concentrations (106 to 107 per ml) decreased adsorption of L5-30 only partially, less than 60%. The differential effects of homologous and heterologous competitors indicate that initial adsorption of R. meliloti to the root surface of its host occurs in symbiont-specific as well as nonspecific modes and suggest the existence of binding sites on roots which are highly selective for the specific microsymbiont in the presence of other heterologous bacteria even in very unfavorable (less than 10-4) symbiont-competitor concentration ratios.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta