Pre-Columbian Architecture in Mesoamerica

Abbeville Press, 2010-10-26. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 2010 Abbeville Press Publishers (New York), 9 7/8 x 13 1/8 inches tall black cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, silver lettering to spine, pale blue endpapers, copiously illustrated with full color photographs and black-and-white line drawings, 336 pp. Prior owner address label to top margin of front pastedown. Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a like dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. Note that this is a heavy and oversized book, so additional postage will be required for international or priority orders. ~SP36~ [6.5P] A standard reference for the serious student and an intellectual delight for the interested amateur. This authoritative yet accessible study begins with an overview of the aesthetics, meanings, functions, and techniques of Mesoamerican architecture, and then proceeds to survey the historical development of the builder's art in each of the region's cultural areas. As readers travel from the Maya heartland of Guatemala and the Yucatan to the Aztec stronghold of the Valley of Mexico, and all the way to the northern hinterlands of Mesoamerica, they will gain an appreciation of both the unity and the diversity of the region's architecture. The concluding chapter is devoted to the descriptions of architecture that have survived in Mayan and Aztec texts; it includes a unique and valuable glossary of the relevant glyphs.