Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (two volume set)

Hardcover

1848 · New York

by Stephens, John L.; [Sylvanus Griswold Morley]

New York: Harper & Brothers for Henry Bill, 1848. Later printing. Hardcover. Good. Frederick Catherwood. 459; 478pp. Octavo [24 cm] Brown pebbled cloth over boards, with gilt stamped titles on the backstrips, and elaborately ornamental designs in gilt and blind on the backstrips and boards. Fold-out frontispieces in both volumes. Spines sunned and showing wear. Contemporary gift inscriptions on preliminary leaves. Stitching visible in the inside margins. Text blocks sturdy. Light dampstaining to lower extremities of p. 344 through the rear endpaper of volume 2 (stains start out very small and grow progressively larger). The majority of the pages (truncated) are very bright. There is no illustration on p. 408 of volume 2 ("Lonely Edifice"), however there is a plate (which is not listed) at p. 416 ("Ancient Building, Island of Mugeres"). Else, all plates are present as listed. Fold out "Map of Yucatan" facing chapter 1 of volume 1.

With the following notation in pencil on the front free endpaper of volume 1: "Morley Collection B-7299." The bookplate of Sylvanus Griswold Morley has been tucked in. American archaeologist Sylvanus Griswold Morley (1883-1948) was an expert in Maya hieroglyphic writing. He was the public face of Maya studies from the 1920s to late 1940s. After finishing his graduate degree, Morley moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he held a position at the newly founded School of American Archaeology (later the School of American Research). In 1914 he joined the staff of the Carnegie Institution of Washington as the head of a new research program studying the ancient Maya. In 1923 he began the Chichén Itzá Project (1924–1940), which excavated and reconstructed many key structures at that destroyed city in Yucatan. Until 1929 Morley directed the entire Carnegie Maya program, with archaeological projects at Uaxactún, Guatemala, and elsewhere in Mexico and Central America. A great number of Maya archaeologists in the first half of the twentieth century trained under Morley and at Carnegie projects. One cannot say for certain that these books belonged to Morley, but the evidence points in that direction. John Lloyd Stephens' account of his second exploration of the ruined remains of the Maya civilization in the Yucatan. The author first published "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan" in 1841. This work is the author's more thorough exploration of the ruins of the Yucatan. The Preface explains that the pages herein "describe, as the author has reason to believe, the most extensive journey ever made by a stranger in that peninsula, and contain the account of visits to forty-four ruined cities, or places in which remains or vestiges of ancient population were found. The existence of most of these ruins was entirely unknown to the residents of the capital; - but few had ever been visited by white inhabitants; - they were desolate, and overgrown with trees. For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them to utter destruction."

Illustrated by 120 extraordinary engravings by Frederick Catherwood, the British illustrator and archaeologist who accompanied Stephens on his expedition.

A classic travel narrative of the Yucatan, and one which would spur popular and scholarly interest in the area. (Inventory #: 68518)

$450.⁰⁰ add to cart or Buy Direct from
Ken Sanders Rare Books

Offered by

Ken Sanders Rare Books

209 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

books@kensandersbooks.com

(801) 521-3819

Specializing in Western & Native Americana, Explorations & Travels, Utah & Mormons, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Modern First Editions, Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, B. Traven, Wordless Novels & Illustrated Books.

More from this seller

Signed

The Book of the People: Popul Vuh: The National Book of the Ancient Quichè Maya

by Goetz, Delia; Sylvanus Griswold Morley (Translators); Adrián Recinos, Lucille Kaufman Weil

Los Angeles : Limited Editions Club; The Plantin Press , 1954
(click for more details)

The Collected Works of C. G. Jung (18 volumes in 19 books)

by Jung, Carl; Translated by R. F. C. Hull and Leopold Stein

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press , 1978
(click for more details)

The ABAA
Promise