The Goldsmith's Art in Ancient Mexico. by Marshall H. SavilleReview by: Philip Ainsworth MeansThe Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Aug., 1921), pp. 498-499Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2506049 .

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498 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN REVIEW

Lagunas Castilla y Zavala, member of a great family and a creditable bard of the last half of the eighteenth centtiry, is discussed.

The book is excellent and indeed indispensable. Its chief lack is that of an alphabetical index. It is well printed on good paper.

PHILIP AINSWORTH MEANS.

The Goldsmith's Art in Ancient Mexico. By MARSHALL H. SAVILLE. Published by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. (New York: 1920. Pp. 264.)

To most people the search for gold seems to have been the chief, if not the sole, motive of the Spanish conquerors in America. Nearly everyone has notions, however incorrect and nebulous, of the vast wealth of the native empires vanquished by Castile and by her tumbled in the dust. This small book by Professor Saville gives a vast amount of information about what the goldsmith's art of one of those empires really was.

Pages 8 to 107 inclusive are taken up with textual transcripts of inventories, notes and explanatory text revealing in great detail what was the nature of the gold found by the Spaniards in Mexico and to what persons it was assigned. The material here given is based on the accounts of Bernal Dias del Castillo, Cervantes de Salazar, Cortes, and various inedited lists of loot existing in the archives of the Indies. Lists given by L6pez de Gomara, Peter Martyr and other writers also appear. The impression created by reading these accounts of plunder is one of surprise at the great variation in the workmanship reported upon and admiration for the manner in which gold was combined with fine woods, cotton, feathers, deerskins, precious stones, and other objects either to make things of great beauty or to form a treasure of great value.

Pages 108 to 189 are taken up with excerpts from many ancient ac- counts of Mexican goldsmith 's work. Especially important is Sahaguin's account, in Nahuatl, published here on pages 125-142 with a translation into English of Seler's French version of the original. The entire gold- working technology of the Aztecs is here made very clearly understood by one of the most important writers. This particular part of Sahagun 's work is relatively little known, as it was omitted by Sahagvin himself in his abridged Spanish version. The remainder of the work is taken up with notes and an excellent index.

This will remain a first-rank work of reference for an important sub- division of the artistic life of the ancient Mexicans. The illustrations, both those which are colored and those in black-and-white, are admirable.

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BOOK REVIEWS 499

The proofreading has been carefully attended to. It is to be regretted that so excellent a monograph should have been given a format which does not harmonize with its character, and which must act as a deterrent to the intrinsic value of the work itself.

PHiILIP AINSWORTIH AMEANS.

Mexican writers: a Catalogue of Books ill the University of Arizona Library with Synopses and Biographical Notes. By ESTELLE LUTRELL,

Librarian of the University of Arizona. (Tucson: 1920. Pp 83. Poirtraits.)

This useful reference workI on Mexican bibliography is published as Univelsity of Arizona record, vol. XIII, no. 5, Library bibliography, no. 5. Full names and dates are given with important bio-)ib]iograph- ical data of the more prominent Mexican authors of the mnodern period. The bibliography is arr anged in five sections: Mexican writers; Literature in Spanish upon Mexican themes by authors native to other countries; Collections, literary criticism, biography; Bibliog- raphies; and Mexican language. Miss Lutrell's contribution will be very helpful to students, and especially to librarians and cataloguers, since it contains much necessary information by no means easily accessible.

C. K. JONES.

Santo Domingo and Haiti. A Cruise with the Marines. By SAMUEL

GUY INMAN, Executive Secretary of the Committee on Co-operation in Latin America. Report of a visit to these island republics in the summer of 1919. (New York: Committee on Co-operation in Latin America, 1920. Pp. 96. Sketch map. Paper.)

Dr. Inman's small volume is a "brief digest of religious, social, and educational conditions in the Dominican Republic and Haiti ". Beyond his own observations, the writer claims no original investigation, and has made considerable use of the few sources available, including Schoen- rich 's Santo Domingo, a Country with a Future. He reproduces in whole or in part a report of United States Consul Clement S. Edwards relative to Santo Domingo, and a portion of a memorandum prepared for his use by an American resident of Haiti, besides making quotations from variotus religious writers. The work is timely and is an addition to ouir rather meager knowledgle of these two republics that lie right at our owni dooirway. Santo Domingo is treated in six short chapters, namely:

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