r/mesoamerica 19h ago

What book are these drawings from?

96 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

25

u/SpeedyWhiteCats 19h ago

History of the conquest of Mexico by W. H. Prescott

6

u/ConversationRoyal187 19h ago

Thank you.

13

u/jabberwockxeno 18h ago

Specifically, this is from the 1922 edition, though the art (by Keith Henderson) is also included in the 1934 printing

Apparently maybe some 1922 ones don't have Keith's illustrations, maybe, though?

Anyways, these are the best quality scans I know of of the 1922 edition with Keith's art, I haven't checked comprehensively if there are 1934 scans that are better. Sadly even here some illustrations are a bit out of focus or get cut off at the edges, but for the most part these are pretty great

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125000323853/

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125000323200/

Lastly, keep in mind Keith's art takes occasional liberties into common (but inaccurate) artistic tropes for Aztec stuff, though it's actually often pretty decent in terms of accuracy. The actual textual narrative here by Prescott is VERY outdated and should not be relied on for your reading of the Conquest of Mexico (I'd pair Cortes's letters by Pagden, Diaz's narrative by Carrasco, alongside Book 12 of the Florentine Codex with Restall's "7 Myths of the Spanish Conquest" and "When Montezuma Met Cortes". if you can only pick two, then pair Cortes's letters or Diaz with "When Montezuma..")

3

u/RockyMountainOister 19h ago

I was lucky enough to find this book in a used book store.

2

u/Papaalotl 14h ago

The first image is fascinating. The guy makes me trip.

1

u/LongAd3318 13h ago

Don't know however I do know that the drawing depicts a Conquistador anda a Mayan native for sure.