The Aztecs

This illustrated cultural history treats Mexica civilisation as an urban and religious system centred on Tenochtitlan. Townsend describes the lake city, its sacred precinct and markets, the calendar and world-picture that organised ceremony, tribute provinces, and the cults of Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc, and related gods. He uses archaeology, sculpture, and pictorial manuscripts alongside Spanish and native texts. The Spanish invasion appears as the collapse of that system rather than as the whole story. The book is an account of Aztec art, ritual, and city form, not a year-by-year dynastic chronicle and not a biography of Cortes.

Bound in light blue cloth gilt blocked with a design by Yann Legendre. Text. Picture. 84 black & white integrated images in volume 1; 90 colour images in volume 2. Title page in volume 1 and 2 printed in two colours. Gilded page tops. Red endpapers. Gilt pattern blocked red cloth slipcase.