Rivero, Mariano Eduardo de, and Johann Jakob von Tschudi | A pioneering archaeological and ethnographic study of Ancient Peru

Rivero, Mariano Eduardo de, and Johann Jakob von Tschudi

Antigüedades Peruanas. Vienna: Imprenta Imperial de la Corte y del Estado, 1851

2 volumes, 4to and oblong folio (text: 284 x 220 mm; plates: 422 x 549 mm). Text: With half-title and tinted lithographic frontispiece, wood-engraved illustrations in text, musical notation, and several lengthy bilingual passages in Spanish and Quechua; foxing primarily to frontispiece, lightly toned. Plates: 60 lithographed plates, including 40 finely hand-colored, many heightened in gum arabic; minor foxing and marginal soiling to a few plates. Modern quarter morocco.

First edition of a pioneering archaeological and ethnographic study of ancient Peru, and the earliest work to visually document Incan mummies, artifacts, and monuments at scale.

The result of more than a decade of fieldwork by Rivero, Director of the National Museum in Lima, and the Swiss naturalist Tschudi, Antigüedades Peruanas remains a cornerstone in the study of pre-Columbian cultures. The text includes chapters on government, religion, science, astronomy, medicine, and language—reproducing passages in Quechua from Fernando de Avendaño’s 1648 bilingual sermons, alongside a bibliography of Quechuan grammars.

The plate volume includes hand-colored lithographs of crouched mummies, burial clothing, musical instruments, whistling vessels, ceramics, textiles, and architectural plans of sites such as Chan Chan.

“A work of great importance on the ethnology and antiquities of Peru” (Sabin).

REFERENCES:

Sabin 71642–43; Palau 270430