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Guide to the Antiquities of Mexico, proof sheets
M000030
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Collection Title:
Antiquities of Mexico, proof sheets
Identification: M000030
Physical Description: 22.00
Language of Materials:
English
Spanish;Castilian
Repository:
Sutro Library, California State Library
1630 Holloway Avenue
5th floor
San Francisco, CA, 94132-4030
URL: http://www.library.ca.gov/about/sutro_main.html
Email: sutro@library.ca.gov
Phone: 415-469-6100
Abstract: This collection contains 517 original proof sheets for Lord Kingsborough (Edward King, 1795-1837)'s landmark publication,
Antiquities of Mexico: comprising fac-similes of ancient Mexican paintings and hieroglyphics, preserved in the royal libraries
of Paris, Berlin and Dresden, in the Imperial library of Vienna, in the Vatican library; in the Borgian museum at Rome; in
the library of the Institute at Bologna; and in the Bodleian library at Oxford. Together with the Monuments of New Spain,
by M. Dupaix: with their respective scales of measurement and accompanying descriptions. The whole illustrated by many valuable
inedited manuscripts, by Augustine Aglio. London: A. Aglio (Vols. 1–5), R. Havell (Vols. 6–7), H.G. Bohn (Vols. 8–9)
, was published between 1830-1848.
Antiquities of Mexico made available facsimiles of Mesoamerican pictorial codices, many for the first time. Kingsborough employed the Italian artist Agostino Aglio to create drawings from manuscripts held in European libraries. The first volumes appeared in 1830. Production required thousands of pounds of paper, and costs reached the tens of thousands of Pounds Sterling causing financial difficulty for both Kingsborough and Aglio. Publication contiuned until 1848, reaching nine volume, and plans for a tenth which failed to materialize before Kingsborough's death.
Antiquities of Mexico made available facsimiles of Mesoamerican pictorial codices, many for the first time. Kingsborough employed the Italian artist Agostino Aglio to create drawings from manuscripts held in European libraries. The first volumes appeared in 1830. Production required thousands of pounds of paper, and costs reached the tens of thousands of Pounds Sterling causing financial difficulty for both Kingsborough and Aglio. Publication contiuned until 1848, reaching nine volume, and plans for a tenth which failed to materialize before Kingsborough's death.
Irish peer Lord Kingsborough (1795-1837) initiated, financed, compilied, and edited nine published volumes of ancient Mexican
manuscripts and paintings preserved in various libraries throughout Europe as well as other pictorial physical remains. The
published work known as the
Antiquities of Mexico took approximately 18 years to produce and the last two volumes were published after Kingsborough's 1837 death of typhus
in a Dublin debtors' prison.
Lord Kingsborough engaged the Italian artist, Agostino Aglio (1777-1857), to illustrate the publication. Aglio, a landscape
painter, had studied at the Brera Academy, worked in Rome under Campoveccio Mantovano, and moved to England to assist William
Wilkins in the production of
Antiquities of Magna Graecia. He also produced frescoes at St. Mary Moorfields in London. To illustrate
<em>Antiquities of Mexico, </em>Aglio made drawings from originals which were reproduced as lithographs.
---Cf.
Sylvia D. Whitmore, "Lord Kingsborough and his Contriubtion to Ancient Mesoamerican Scholarship: The Antiquities of Mexico,"
The PARI Journal, A quarterly publication of the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, volume IX, no. 4, Spring 2009
The original order for the sheets was most likely numerical. In 2019, a volunteer rehoused the sheets into mylar and a student
volunteer foldered and arranged the sheets to follow the published work,
collating against the digital facsimile available from Harvard's Tozzer Library:
Persistent Link: https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:28188513
Description: Antiquities of Mexico
Repository: FHCL.TOZ
Institution: Harvard University
Handwritten numbers found in the upper right corner of each mylar sheet were added by Sutro Library staff for item control
and should not be considered citation numbers.
The collection consists of (11) 20 x 24 inch flat boxes which replaced the previous housing of a drop spine clamshell box.
Property rights reside with the repository. Any applicable literary rights would reside with the creators of the documents
or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please email sutro@library.ca.gov
The collection is open for research. Please page materials three business days in advance of your visit by email: sutro@library.ca.gov
.
[Identification of item]
Antiquities of Mexico proof sheets, M000030, Sutro Library, California State Library, San Francisco, Calif.
Physical Characteristics or Technical Requirements:
22 linear feet
The original artist proof sheets or plates are arranged to follow the order found in the final published volumes of
Antiquities of Mexico by Lord Kingsborough. Each volume of the published work is listed as a series and the subseries are the codices found in
each volume. The manuscript plate numbers relate to the images found in each particular codex listed below:
series 1: Volume 1
subseries 1: Copy of the Collection of Mendoza, Preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
subseries 2: Copy of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Preserved in the Royal Library at Paris.
subseries 3: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Hieroglyphic Painting, From the Collection of Boturini.
subseries 4: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting, Preserved in the Collection of Sir Thomas Bodley in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford.
subseries 5: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting, Preserved in the Selden Collection of MSS. in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford.
subseries 6: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Hieroglyphic Painting, Preserved Amongst the Selden Collection in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford.
series 2: Volume 2
subseries 1: Copy of a Mexican MS., Preserved in the Library of the Vatican.
subseries 2: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting Given to the University of Oxford by Archbishop Laud, and Preserved
in the Bodleian Library.
subseries 3: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting Preserved in the Library of the Institute at Bologna.
subseries 4: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting Preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna.
subseries 5: Fac-similes of Original Mexican Paintings Deposited in the Royal Library at Berlin by the Baron de Humboldt,
and of a Mexican Bas-Relief Preserved in the Royal Cabinet of Antiques.
series: Volume 3
subseries 1: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting Preserved in the Borgian Museum, at the College of Propaganda in Rome.
[Section 2 of this volumne entitled, "Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting Preserved in the Royal Library at Dresden."
is missing from this collection]
subseries 2: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting in the Possession of M. de Fejervary at Pess in Hungary.
subseries 3: Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting Preserved in the Library of the Vatican.
series 4 contains two miscelleanous items, to include one unidentified proof plate.
The collection contains 517 original, artist proof sheets for volumes 1-3 of Lord Kingsborough's published work. While voluminous,
the collection is not complete. Section 2 of volume 3, "Fac-simile of an Original Mexican Painting, Preserved in the Royal
Library at Dresden" is missing. Plates that are represented in the published work but not found in this collection are noted
in each folder's description.
These lithographs were made from drawings produced by Agostino Aglio, most hand-colored. Of particular note are the many handwritten
corrections and annotations frequently found on the plates in both English and Spanish. Also of interest are the many instances
of visible wasted previously used to mend the badly damaged plates.