Researches, Concerning the Institutions & Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, with Descriptions & Views of Some of the Most Striking Scenes in the Cordilleras! Written in French & Translated into English.

HUMBOLDT, Alexander von; WILLIAMS, Helen Maria (trans.)

Edité par London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, J. Murray, & H. Colburn, 1814

A propos de cet article

First edition in English, revised and translated from the illustrated folio edition published in Paris in 1813. The work was originally serialized in seven parts from 1810 to 1813. It contains Humboldt's reflections on South and Central American culture, and "crosses many traditional genres of literary and scientific writing, ranging from travelogue and essay to scientific treatise, art historiography, and anthology" (Kutzinski and Ette, p. xxix). Drawn from research undertaken on his travels with Aimé Bonpland from 1799 to 1804, this is Humboldt's guide to the "origin and first progress of the arts among the natives of America" including "specimens of the remains of their architecture, sculpture, historical painting, and hieroglyphics" (vol. I, p. 1). It established Humboldt as a key figure in the development of Mesoamerican studies, and provided indispensable observations regarding botany, zoology, geography, and geology that gave root to later studies. Humboldt aimed to offer a holistic view of world civilizations rather than merely measuring everything by the Greek and Roman model: "my own recent investigations on the natives of America appear at an epocha in which we no longer deem unworthy of attention whatever is not conformable to that classical] style" (vol. I, pp. 5-6). "Humboldt's intent [was] to work against (mis)understanding the New World as a historyless 'realm of nature' populated by uncivilized roving hordes. His purpose was to develop an alternative perspective on the interrelations of nature and culture in the Americas, a view, as it were, whose worldwide entanglements would not permit Europeans to define 'America' as their Other" (Kutzinski & Ette, p. xvi). Humboldt argued for the equality of the "old" and the "new" by showing that they were of the same geological age. This edition was translated into English by Humboldt's friend, the writer Helen Maria Williams. Williams translated works from French into English, along with publishing poems, novels, and letters of her own. These included eye-witness accounts of her controversial solo travels around France during the Revolution, of which she was a staunch defender. In addition to being an associate of figures such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Francisco de Miranda, and Thomas Paine, she was famously the subject of William Wordsworth's first published poem, "On Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress" (1787). The "Advertisement from the Editor" states: "the Picturesque Atlas in Folio being, from its Nature, of too high a Price for Readers in general, is has been judged necessary to Reprint the Text in two Octavo Volumes" (vol. I, pp. iii-iv). This edition retains 20 of the plates included in the 1813 French edition, of which 5 are beautifully hand-coloured. Vera M. Kutzinski & Ottmar Ette, "The Art of Science: Alexander von Humboldt's Views of the Cultures of the World", Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, 2013. 2 vols, octavo. Engraved title pages with vignettes, 20 plates on 19 leaves, 5 of which hand-coloured, tables within text. With 16 pp. publisher's advertisements at front of vol. I. Original drab boards, printed paper labels, edges uncut. Contemporary ownership signatures of one Thomas White and one B. M. Carter to front endpapers. Extremities worn, spines cracked, boards a little marked, joints of vol. I cracked at ends, front joint of vol. II professionally repaired, rear board of same bumped along lower edge, but nevertheless well preserved in original boards, foxing to contents, tear affecting text to vol. I, sig. A2 and I1: a very good copy.

N° de réf. du vendeur 177515

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Researches, Concerning the Institutions & Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, with Descriptions & Views of Some of the Most Striking Scenes in the Cordilleras! Written in French & Translated into English.
• Éditeur: London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, J. Murray, & H. Colburn, 1814
• Édition: Edition originale