A new exhibit at Thomas Cooper Library displays illustrated books and maps about Mexico from the 16th century to the late 19th century. The exhibit is on display in the Mezzanine Gallery through mid-June.
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| Map of Mexico City from Braun and Hogenberg's Civitates Oribis Terrarum, 1572 |
The exhibit docu-ments the gradual process by which inform-ation about the cultures and history of pre-Colum-bian Mexico was described and publicized in Spain and Mexico, as well as in rival European countries, including the Netherlands, Britain, France, and the United States.
Most of the books on display have been in the USC library since the 1830s and 1840s, providing evidence of the intellectual ambitions of the original South Carolina College and of the worldwide range of the books that were purchased for its library.
The oldest item on display is an engraving of Mexico City, printed in 1565, from the Italian writer Ramusio’s Voyages. Other early works include illustrations of Aztec customs by the German Theodor de Bry from 1594 and Dutch engraved maps from the 17th century by the Dutchmen De Laet and Montanus.
Some of the volumes are from the early 19th century, including Alexander von Humboldt’s folio Vue des Cordelleres et Monumens des Peuples Indigene de l’Amerique (Paris, 1810) and Lord Kingsborough’s seven-volume Antiquities of Mexico (London, 1830), with its colored facsimiles of pre-Columbian illuminated manuscripts. The architecture of the pre-Columbian Aztec and Mayan cultures is represented both from Kingsborough’s work and from the American J. L. Stephens’s books about the Yucatan (1841 and 1843).
The exhibit is free and open to the public.
For library hours, call 7-4866. For inquiries about the exhibit items, contact the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at 7-8154.
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From Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico, 1830
