Beschreibung:

DEL RIO, Antonio del. Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City, discovered near Palenque, in the kingdom of Guatemala, in Spanish America; translated from the original manuscript report of Cap-tain Don Antonio del Rio: followed by Teatro Critico Americano; or, a critical investigation and research into the history of the Americans, by Doctor Paul Felix Cabrera. London: G. Schulze for Henry Berthoud and Suttaby, Evance & Fox, 1822. 4° (280 x 223mm). Half-title. 19 lithographic plates, 1 folding, by Jean Frederic Maximilien de Waldeck after Ricardo Almendariz, printed by McQueen & Co. (Plates and some text spotted.) Original cloth-backed boards, paper title label on backstrip, (backstrip faded and torn with loss, joints slightly split). Provenance : James Blake (inscription dated 1837). FIRST EDITION, uncut in original boards. This translation into English is the first publication of both Rio's report and Dr. Cabrera's thesis on the origin of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. 'Captain del Rio... examined the now famous ruins of Panenque in 1787, but his manuscript report remained in the provincial archives of Guatemala until a short time prior to their translation and publication in the present form' (Sabin). The majority of the text (pp.[23-]119) is taken up by Doctor Cabrera's Teatro Critico Americano . Sabin 71446. Anne Cary MAUDSLAY & Alfred Percival MAUDSLAY (1850-1931). A Glimpse at Guatemala, and some notes on the monuments of Central America. London: Taylor & Francis for John Murray 1899. 4° (291 x 230mm). Title in red and black, half-title, errata slip. 57 plates, plans and maps (including 38 photogravure plates [1 double-page, the majority from photographs], 2 chromolithographs of textile samples, 6 double-page lithographic plans or plates and 1 folding lithographic general map printed in three colours), about 70 illustrations (including 15 line drawings on india-paper mounted and 37 photogravures). Original cloth-backed boards, coloured illustration on upper cover (soiled). FIRST EDITION of this beautifully produced work, intended as a sort of précis of Maudslay's contribution to the monumental Biologia Centrali-Americana (published in numerous volumes between 1879 and 1915, by Osbert Salvin and Frederick du Cane Godman.) (2)