Review: Prescott's The Conquest of Mexico

Review: Prescott’s The Conquest of Mexico

The Conquest of Mexico by William Hickling Prescott, illustrated by Keith Henderson, with an Introduction by T.A. Joyce

Chatto & Windus, London, 1922

Two quarto volumes; hardcover, with gilt decorative motifs on front boards and gilt lettering on spine; 965pp. [480pp. + 485pp.], untrimmed with wide margins, top edges gilt, many black & white illustrations; monochrome map of the Gulf of Mexico as pastedowns and endpapers. Boards rubbed and spines sunned and slightly soiled; upper board fore-edges show mild insect damage; light bumping to corners and shelfwear to spine heads and tails; previous owner's inscriptions in both volumes along with retailer's bookplate on front pastedowns; scattered spotting to prelims.; browned page edges; top edges dusted. Good to very good, else.

At the risk of proving myself to be a complete nutcase about ancient South American civilisations, I present as today’s review something that might just qualify as an actual Mythos tome. It’s gloriously quirky and beautiful to behold, so I just had to share!

Thanks to Spanish missionary efforts like those of Diego de Landa, Bishop of Yucatan, original documents pertaining to the indigenous cultures of South America were mostly destroyed before any analysis of their contents could be carried out. This meant that everything we know about these civilisations comes from the Spanish and Portuguese records of their conquests and occupation. In the past what scrolls were taken back to Europe were largely dismissed as nothing more than patterned textiles; it wasn’t until the early Nineteenth Century that they were identified as textual documents and the business of their translation was begun.

In the full flood of this investigation, William H. Prescott penned his two epic histories – The Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest of Peru. These were necessarily compiled from Spanish and Portuguese textual sources but swiftly became a mainstay in studying these regions of the New World: in fact Col. Percy Fawcett swore by his work as part of the preparations for his doomed explorations in Brazil. Published in 1843, the work stood the test of time for a further 80 years before any serious questions as to its accuracy were voiced.

Prescott worked only through the documents which he had amassed in his home in England. He had no access to studies in Anthropology, Ethnology or Sociology as these disciplines were in the first stages of their establishment. On top of this he was also nearly blind. That he managed to exert his imagination and critical faculties to produce such a compelling narrative of the clash of cultures which the Conquest comprised, and to bring to life the characters of Cortes and Montezuma, is an incredible accomplishment.

Keith Henderson, the illustrator, made a personal commitment to attempt the illustration of Prescott’s work whilst pinned down by other duties during the Great War. Once freed of the conflict he spent hours in the British Museum with T.A. Joyce (head of the Department of Anthropological and Oriental studies and who wrote the Introduction), learning about the Aztec culture and honing his style for the purpose of illustrating the text. Much of the first section of Volume One is decorated with marginal line drawings taken from the Codices available to him at the ‘Museum and they help to ground the introductory back-story of the Conquest in an ‘ancient’ sensibility. In later sections, Henderson’s precise linework captures the bizarre confrontation of 16^th Century Spanish armour and the garish battle costumes of the Aztecs. He becomes, as he states in his Introduction, a fly on the wall of these great events, and in depicting them, takes us along for the ride.

The coming years may see the inevitable decline in publishing productions as beautiful as this is. Until then, I’ll keep bringing them to your attention.

And of course, I give this the full five tentacled horrors!