“In 1861, Sir Richard Francis Burton, one of the Victorian era’s greatest scholar/adventurers, entered the British Foreign Office as consul in Fernando Po, a Spanish island off the coast of West Africa. Over the next three years, he embarked on many short expeditions to the mainland, amassing a huge store of information on the indigenous peoples of the region. He later wrote five books about his travels and exploration. This present volume is one of the best known, a fascinating, detailed description of Burton’s long journey to his post, his arrival at Fernando Po and his first investigations of the lives and customs of native tribes dwelling along the West African coast.”

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 624 pages
Illustrated

Considered by many scholars the finest Mexican codex and one of the most important original sources for the study of pre-Columbian religion, The Codex Borgia is a work of profound beauty, filled with strange and evocative images related to calendrical, cosmological, ritual and divinatory matters. The priceless original is in the Vatican library, and has been damaged over the centuries. It took seven years to restore the Codex by hand. The result is 76 large full-color plates of vibrant, striking depictions of gods, kings, warriors, mythical creatures and mysterious abstract designs.”

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 96 pages
Illustrated

One of the greatest tragedies of history is the destruction of nearly all ancient Mexican books by the religiously possessed Spanish priests during their conquest. In their attempt to obliterate all records and histories of these greatly advanced civilizations, they left a mere handful of the great hand-painted books in salvageable condition. In fact, out of untold numbers of Maya pre-conquest manuscripts only four survive. The conquistador Cortes sent two such “codices” to the Emperor Charles V. It is suspected that the Codex Nuttall may have been one of these. This book is a reprint of a 1902 facsimile of an ancient book created in the region now known as Oaxaca, Mexico, shortly before the bloody conquest. It shows the life of kings and warriors centering around the year 1000, including glimpses of ceremonies, birth rites, marriage histories, sacrifices and still-indecipherable symbols of the Mixtec artists. Like much pre-Colombian art, these images combine simplicity with complex mystery. The sense of permanent loss is profound. CS

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 96 pages
Illustrated

“Classic work interprets Maya symbolism, estimates styles, covers ceramics, architecture, murals, stone carvings as art forms.”

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 285 pages
Illustrated

Ninety-nine percent of what we know of the Maya civilization comes from this one source—because its author burned everything else! “These people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books about the antiquities and their sciences… We found a great number of books in these letters, and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the devil, we burned them all, which they took most grievously and which gave them great pain.” Friar Landa did all he could to wipe out the Maya culture in the name of God. One night in 1592, he records, he destroyed 5,000 “idols” and burned 27 hieroglyphic rolls. Accused of “despotic mismanagement” by Spain, he wrote this book to defend his dubious honor. GR

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 162 pages
Illustrated

From 1913: “Lights on board the Titanic were still burning, and a wonderful spectacle she made, standing out black and massive against the starlit sky; myriads of lights still gleaming through the portholes, from that part of the decks still above water. As we watched this terribly awe-inspiring sight, suddenly all lights went out and the huge bulk was left in the black darkness, but clearly silhouetted against the bright sky. Then, the next moment, the massive boilers left their beds and went thundering down with a hollow rumbling roar… carrying everything with them… This unparalleled tragedy was being enacted before our very eyes, now rapidly approaching its finale, as the huge ship slowly but surely reared herself on end and brought rudder and propellers clear of the water, till, at last, she assumed an absolute perpendicular position. Then… she silently took her last tragic dive. Almost like a benediction everyone round me on the upturned boat breathed the two words, ‘She’s gone.’” GR

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 320 pages
Illustrated

Extraordinary document (1608) on witchcraft and demonology offers striking insight into the early 17th-century mind. Serious discussions of witches’ powers, poisons and their crimes. Examined in detail are witches’ alleged powers to transport themselves from place to place, create living dead things, make beasts talk and raise the dead.

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 206 pages
Illustrated

Barbed, bitter, brilliant witticisms in the form of a dictionary: “CONTEMPT, n. The feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed. EGOIST, A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. MAUSOLEUM, n. The final and funniest folly of the rich.”

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 139 pages

“Sixteenth-century classic that set out to disprove the existence of witches. In his attempt to expose the absurdity of ideas about the supposed nature of witches, Scot compiled one of the fullest accounts of charges against witches, witch trials and the practice of the black arts. Included are excerpts from writers of the Spanish Inquisition, interviews with convicted witches and opinions of medical authorities. Scot discusses poisoners, jugglers, conjurers, charmers, soothsayers, figure-casters, dreamers, alchemists and astrologers and, in turn, sets down the actual practices of each group and shows how the acts depend not upon the devil but upon either trickery or skill. King James later found Scot’s opinion so heretical that he ordered all copies of his book to be burned.”

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 283 pages
Illustrated

Ideas and beliefs about immortality were crucial points upon which Egyptian religious and social life turned. Renowned Egyptologist Budge presents a synopsis of these ideas of the afterlife: belief in an almighty God; Osiris, the god of resurrection; the Egyptian gods of death; judgment at death; amulets, rites, charms and other items Egyptians regarded as essential for salvation; and more. MET

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 198 pages