American Cities and Ruins: Mitla, Palenqué, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-DucProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
724K words
Chapters
73

Tags

Historical Geography History and CultureArchitecture Heritage ExplorationIllustrated GuideAcademic StudyArchaeological NotesMesoamerican CivilizationCultural Change

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Cités et ruines américaines: Mitla, Palenqué, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, UxmalAuthor: Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel, 1814-1879,Language: French, Class: F1201: North America local history: Mexico, Release Date: Apr 18, 2008

Editor's review

This is the architect and theorist Viollet-le-Duc's account of five ancient sites in Mexico, the French original made freely available by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies not in travel-guide description but in a European architectural scholar's professional examination of the remains at Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, and Uxmal, preserving a primary nineteenth-century European text on American civilizations. Readers can see an architectural-survey style of recording, a comparative interest in decorative motifs, and the viewing angle of an intellectual of that era. As a historical source it suits readers interested in the history of Mesoamerican archaeology, architectural history, and cross-cultural writing; as a reading experience, the French original and period vocabulary are barriers, so it is better suited to slow reading and comparison as research material than to reading straight through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and the order of sites first, matching the five sites to their present-day locations, then read chapter by chapter.
  2. Read alongside modern archaeological surveys of the same region, being careful to distinguish nineteenth-century observations from current conclusions.
  3. Jot down architectural terms as you go and consult a French architectural dictionary in batches, rather than grinding through word by word.
  4. Treat the descriptions as a historical source for textual analysis, noting the author's comparative perspective and period biases.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73

FAQ

Is this book written in French? Can I read it without knowing French? The original is in French, and Project Gutenberg offers the French public-domain text. Readers without French can use translation tools, but architectural terminology and nineteenth-century vocabulary will create obstacles; it is better suited to those with some French reading ability or willing to do comparative textual research.
Which sites does the book cover? The title lists five: Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, and Uxmal, all in present-day Mexico. The book records and discusses the architecture and remains of these sites.
Is this book suitable as a travel guide? No. It is a nineteenth-century survey, written long before modern tourist facilities and archaeological restoration, and its information is not meant to be practical. For an actual trip, rely on contemporary guides and popular archaeology books; use this only for historical background.
What should I keep in mind when reading this as a public-domain e-book? Public-domain texts are transcribed by volunteers and may contain layout or occasional character errors; the views expressed belong to the author's era and do not represent modern scholarly consensus. Read it as a historical source, and check page numbers and edition information against the original when citing it.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc Author · French · 1814–1879

Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel (1814–1879), was a French architect and architectural theorist, born in Paris and died in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is known for directing the restoration of medieval buildings such as Notre-Dame de Paris, the walls of Carcassonne, and the Château de Pierrefonds, and was a central figure in the Gothic Revival movement. His representative work, the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française, systematically examines French architecture from the 11th to the 16th centuries, combining theoretical depth with empirical scholarship, and has had a lasting influence on architectural history and heritage conservation. The library holds 16 of his works, mostly volumes of this dictionary. Public information is limited and details of his life are unclear, but these achievements establish his important place in architectural history.