{"product_id":"engraving-of-indigenous-goldsmiths-of-quito-at-work","title":"1673 Engraving of Indigenous Goldsmiths of Quito at Work","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn engraved scene of Indigenous goldsmiths of Quito at work appears in this excerpted leaf from the Origins of the Americans chapter of the 1673 German edition of Arnoldus Montanus's account of the Americas.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeneath a palm heavy with fruit, metalworkers in feathered headbands crowd around a smoking fire. Several reach into it with long pipes, one carries a crucible across on a pair of sticks, and another, seated on a rock, pours molten metal from a pot. In the distance, a train of laden llamas winds over the hills. The scene appears to illustrate the account on the reverse, which the text attributes to Girolamo Benzoni, of the gold- and silversmiths of Quito, who worked without iron tools. According to the text, they shaped a crucible from a woolen rag coated with clay and ground charcoal and dried it in the sun. Then six or more men blew on the fire through reed pipes until the metal melted. The text below asks how the first Americans reached the New World, by land or by sea, deliberately or driven by storms. It argues that Mexico's lack of ancient monuments does not prove its people are newcomers. The reverse also rebuts Samuel Purchas, arguing that the Americas were peopled many centuries earlier, soon after the confusion of tongues at Babel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArnoldus Montanus (ca. 1625–1683), a Dutch minister and schoolmaster, compiled \u003cem\u003eDe Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld\u003c\/em\u003e from earlier chronicles and travel accounts without ever crossing the Atlantic. The Amsterdam publisher Jacob van Meurs issued it in 1671 with a wealth of engravings. John Ogilby's English adaptation followed the same year, and \u003cem\u003eDie Unbekante Neue Welt\u003c\/em\u003e, the German edition attributed to Olfert Dapper, followed in 1673. Its illustrations were drawn by artists who had mostly never seen the Americas either. They mix reported detail with European invention, and they shaped how a generation of European readers pictured the New World.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New World Cartographic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43819762810941,"sku":"92429","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0390\/9705\/files\/92429a.jpg?v=1792070534","url":"https:\/\/nwcartographic.com\/products\/engraving-of-indigenous-goldsmiths-of-quito-at-work","provider":"New World Cartographic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}