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Tag Archives: Inca

Book of the Week — Researches: Concerning the Institutions & Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, with Descriptions and…

23 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week, Recommended Reading

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — Researches: Concerning the Institutions & Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, with Descriptions and…

Tags

Alexander von Humboldt, archaeology, Aztec, drawings, English, Helen Maria Williams, hieroglyphics, history, Inca, London, Mexico, mythology, Peru, Vues des Cordillères

F1219-H91-v.1-title

“The Mexican paintings, a very small number of which has reached our times, excite a double interest, both from the light they throw on the mythology and history of the first inhabitants of America, and the apparent connexion with the hieroglyphical writing of certain nations of the Old Continent. We shall bring together in this work whatever can afford information with respect to the communication which at the most distant periods seem to have taken place between groups of nations separated by deserts, by mountains, or by seas…”

RESEARCHES, CONCERNING THE INSTITUTIONS AND…
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)
London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, J. Murray & H. Colburn, 1814
First Edition in English

Translation by Helen Maria Williams of Vues des Cordillères.…, first published in 1810.

Alexander Humboldt’s description of the geography and ruins he observed in Mexico and Peru is one of the earliest archaeological works on the Aztec and Inca civilizations. The work contains plates in black and white, some of which are hand-colored.

Humboldt was no artist, but, like most educated men of his day, he did have drawing skills. He recorded, during his travels, his views of particular places and their natural environment. His drawings became the basis for illustrations for his many publications. Humboldt’s work influenced scientists, but also artists, who traveled the country Humboldt wrote about and illustrated.

Published in two volumes, Rare Books lacks volume 2.

F1219-H91-v.1-Bridges

F1219-H91-v.1-276spread

F1219-H91-v.1-270spread

F1219-H91-v.1-145spread

F1219-H91-v.1-141spread

Recommended reading:
Measuring the World: A Novel, Daniel Kehlmann, New York: Pantheon Books, 2006
PT2671 E32 V4713 2006
General Collection, Level 2

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015
Q143 H9 W85 2015
Browsing Collection, Level 1

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Banned! — Quipu

28 Wednesday Sep 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Andean, banned, Cecilia Vicuña, Granary Books, Inca, Jerome Rothenberg, New York, print, quipu, Spanish, University of Utah, Western

“It is a prayer for the rebirth of a way of writing with breath.”

n7433-4-v536-c48-2012

CHANCCANI QUIPU
Cecilia Vicuña
New York: Granary Books, 2012

Quipu, or knotted cords, encoded the spoken language of the Inca, representing both single sounds and whole words, and was used as a form of communication for nearly 5000 years before it was banned by the Spanish in 1583. From the booklet: “Chanccani Quipu reinvents the concept of ‘quipu,’ the ancient system of ‘writing’ with knots, transforming it into metaphor in space; a book/sculpture that condenses the clash of two cultures and worldviews: the Andean oral universe and the Western world of print.” From the colophon: Jerome Rothenberg assisted Cecilia Vicuña in translating her poem.” Edition of thirty-two copies, numbered and signed by Cecilia Vicuña and Jerome Rothenberg. University of Utah copy is no. 14.

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