Sales catalogue: Quaritch

Date:
July 1885
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/17/39
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue: Quaritch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/160 page 2901
    Aztec Paintep Recorps—continued. : the rest of North America, from the shores of Hudson’s Bay to the mouths of the Mississippi, was desolate and barbarous, diversified only by swamp, forest, or prairie, and populated by savages without knowledge or laws. Mexico alone redeemed the character of the new continent, and presented to the eyes of the invader a spectacle so. marvellous as to satisfy even the expectations which the great discovery had raised. There the Spaniards found an organized State, an ancient polity, an opulent capital, an exalted dynasty, a formidable priesthood, and a people well skilled in mechanical and decorative arts. So great, in fact, was the proficiency of the Mexican workmen, so _ elaborate the system of government, and so impressive the whole evidence of wealth and grandeur, that for some time the civilization of Mexico was regarded as superior to that of Kurope. Although indeed the researches of modern inquirers have enabled us to supply some corrective to these ideas, it is really probable that in certain respects the Spaniards found Mexico more advanced than Spain, and we-have been recently assured on the authority of a comprehensive history that this civilization was the necessary incident of geographical and natural advantages. Such was the situation and configuration of Mexico that it could hardly fail to make progress, and all that was discovered there in the shape of national wealth or political order represented extraordinary opportunities which nature had provided.” —Times, Dec. 8, 1858. 29050 Ramirez MSS. Co1rccion pE GEroaiiricos Mexicanos, 4 vols, sm. folio, one of them oblong, containing altogether 124 leaves of transcripts of Mexican symbols and picture-writing, made from various original designs existing in Mexico and elsewhere, by Josp Frrxanpo Ramirez of Durango, formerly head of the National Museum of Mexico, afterwards one of the munisters of the Emperor Maximilian, and finally resident at Bonn till his death in 1871; neatly hf. bd. not uniform, £27. This collection of facsimiles of Mexican hieroglyphies and picture writings is exceedingly interesting. Some of the copies relate to times anterior to the conquest, while others relate the facts of the conquest, and of the times immediately. following. 29051 Historta pe Mexico. An oblong 4to. Album, Lf. bd. so lettered, containing 21. leaves of an Historical . Picture-Manuscript, reproduced in facsimele, in vivid.colouring, besides different photographic views of the. ruins of Yucatan (37 in number), and several others uncoloured, from the Ramirez lubrary, £8. 10s | circ. 1860 29052 Mexican Antiguitims. Lithographic Facsimile of a continuous set of Mexican Hieroglyphics, illustrating the history of the Empire, 20 leaves folded into oblong sm. 4to. shape, 20s About 1830 Apparently executed in England. 29053 .OSUNA CODEX. Prxtura del Gobernador, Alealdes, y Regi- dores de Mexico. Cddice en geroglificos Mexicanos y en lengua
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