Period

18th Century

Featured Items

Detail of a printed atlas shows a full-page map.

Neptune Americo-Septentrional contenant les côtes, les et bancs, les baies, ports, et mouillages,...

Buache de la Neuville
1780
Detail of a printed book shows a full-page colored illustration of a plant with insects on it. On the opposite page, text in Latin is visible.

Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium

Maria Sibylla Merian
1719
Detail of a printed map shows text in French, latitude and longitude lines, and small mountains.

Le pilote de l'isle de Saint-Domingue et des débouquemens de cette isle…

1788
Detail of a printed book shows text in Mohawk and English.

A primer for the use of the Mohawk children . . .

Daniel Claus
1786
Detail of a printed book shows title page with English text "The English Pilot. The Fourth Book describing the West India Navigation, from Hudson's Bay to the River Amazones" in red ink.

The English pilot, Book 4

William Fisher; John Thornton
1745
Detail of a printed map shows text in Spanish reading "La Puna" and other labels over landmarks.

Carta de la Provincia de Quito y sus Adjacentes

Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
1750
Engraved fold-out map shows Greenland spelled "Grœnland" and other text in German.

Historie von Grönland

David Cranz
1765-1770
Detail of a printed book shows a decorative head piece on the title page written in Spanish.

Historia natural, civil y geográfica de las naciones situadaes en las riveras del Rio Orinoco

Joseph Gumilla
1791

Related

The cartouche of the map “Algemeene Kaart van de Colonie of Provintie van Suriname,” by Alexander de Lavaux
Map of the Month

Alexander de Lavaux, “Algemeene Kaart van de Colonie of Provintie van Suriname,” after 1758

July 28
Engraving of two Nahua men speaking to one another. An angel hovers behind one of the men, preventing him from producing idolatrous speech, while the other has a snakes stemming from his mouth, which is representative of such language.
Fellow's Talk

"Brute animals" and "rational creatures": Defining humanity in the Indigenous-language vocabularies and pedagogies of New Spain

An eighteenth-century hand colored, engraved image of a ship unloading cargo and men from a boat, surrounded by other ships and backgrounded by a fortification, dwellings, churches, and a harbor.
Fellow's Talk

"To cease and yield the continual pretensions of the French:" The Spanish Establishment of Monte Cristi as a Free Port, 1750-1763

Image of Peruvian Print Shop
Lecture

Historia del libro en lenguas originarias de América

colorful eighteenth-century map of the northern coast of Hispaniola
Map of the Month

Plano y Descripcion Del Puerto del Guarico questa en la Ysla Española…, 1736

August 30
colorful 18th century map of part of West Africa
Map of the Month

Carte du Cours des Fleuves du Sénégal et de Gambie Dédiée et Présentée à Monsieur le Duc de Lauzun…, 1779

July 31
Native Americans of present-day Mexico dance around two drummers

Picturing the Past: Indigenous Expressions in Colonial Mexico

Spring 2020
printed title page with text in Spanish
Adventures in Cataloguing

Diario de las operaciones de la expedicion contra la Plaza de Panzacola...

February 24

See Also

History of Science

Spanish