The Ancient Cities of the New World: Being Travels and Explorations in Mexico and Central America from 1857-1882

London: Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1887. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Good. 27 cm. xxxii, 514 p. Blue hardcover binding with black and gold impressing. Dark blue endpapers. Includes 209 black and white illustrations and a foldout map of Mexico that traces indigenous migration patterns. Repairs to spine ends. Some foxing.

Claude Joseph Désiré Charnay (1828-1915): 'French explorer and archaeologist, noted for his pioneering investigations of prehistoric Mexico and Central America. He was commissioned by the French government in 1857 and spent four years collecting relics in Mexico and compiling a photographic archive of the ruins he saw there. Later expeditions took him to Madagascar (1863), through North America (1867–70), South America (1875), and Australia and Oceania (1878). Charnay’s explorations of the ancient cities of Central America (1880–83) were partly financed by the New York philanthropist Pierre Lorillard. Charnay developed a theory of Toltec migrations in which he argued that certain prehistoric peoples of Central America were of Asian origin. His major work on the subject was Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde (1885; The Ancient Cities of the New World).' (Source: Britannica)