Maudslay, Alfred P.:

$400 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

BIOLOGIA CENTRALI-AMERICANA; OR, CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA...ARCHAEOLOGY. Facsimile edition of one of the great monuments in the history of Mayan studies, Alfred Maudslay's photographs and drawings of a number of the major Mayan sites, such as Quirigua, Copan, Chichen Itza, Palenque and Yaxchilan, executed during his explorations in Central America between 1881 and 1900.Maudslay was an amateur archaeologist, but he was fascinated by the Mayan ruins and set himself the task of recording the architecture and monuments. He worked with a large wet-plate camera, developing his photographs on the spot. He also made extensive casts. Michael Coe says, "It is impossible to exaggerate the importance to Maya research of Maudslay's published work. For the first time, Maya epigraphers had large-scale, incredibly accurate illustrations of complete Classic texts...." Coe also credits Maudslay with being the greatest recorder of Mayan inscriptions.These illustrations are still essential to anyone studying Mayan iconography, and are one of the great monuments of pre-Columbian studies.

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