El primer Gabinete de Historia Natural de México y el reconocimiento del Noroeste novohispano

Laburpena

José Longinos Martínez, faithful representative of the metropolitan illustrated science, was one of the forefathers in the exploration and study of nature at the end of the eighteenth century. Although the bibliographical production on natural history in the eighteenth century in the Hispanic domain has been important in the last years, the lack of specific studies on many of the main characters of these scientific adventures has generated a vacuum which in part this work attempts to fill. In this article two of the more relevant episodes led by the Spanish natural scientist José Longinos Martínez, outstanding member of the botanical expedition to the New Spain between 1790 and 1794, the period which correspond to his research activities in Mexican lands, are recounted. In first place it is brought to light his institutional activity by means of which it is created the first permanent exhibition of natural history of México, and secondly the scientific mission to explore and study the natural habitat of the Californias, northern border of the Viceroyalty.