BOOK UP YOUR IDEAS
This family group is typical of the iconic images that appear in America Pintoresca.
A good hardback cover, but scuffed and damaged. The letters 'AGR' on the lower spine remain unexplained!
One of the many black and white illustrations in America Pintoresca. This is an image from the palace at the Mayan ruins of Palenque in southern Mexico.
AMERICA PINTORESCA
America Pintoresca (subtitled “A description of travels to the New World”) is a classic travelogue in the Spanish-speaking world. Written at the end of the 19th century, it features contributions from some of the leading explorers and travellers of the day:
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Charles Wiener was a scientist-explorer who travelled extensively in Peru
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Jules Crevaux was a doctor, soldier, and explorer, known for his multiple explorations into the interior of French Guiana and the Amazon
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Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay was a traveller and archaeologist noted for his explorations of Mexico and Central America
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Édouard François André was a horticulturalist who was also renowned for designing city parks and public spaces in Monte Carlo and Montevideo
Their descriptive pieces were collated and published by Editorial Montaner i Simon, one of the most important publishing houses in Catalonia and Spain during the second half of the nineteenth century. From their premises in Barcelona, they produced an extensive catalogue of high-quality publications, using high quality machinery and top class draftsmen and engravers. If you have seen memorable pictures of architecture and indigenous natives from South and Central America, there is a good chance that these images are from America Pintoresca!
Facsimile editions of America Pintoresca are in constant demand, but a combination of age and damage made this copy an attractive proposition. The condition of this book was ‘poor’ to ‘fair’, a ‘reading copy’ - it now lives in Germany!