| Lost Cities of the Maya | |
| Author: | Claude-François Baudez Sydney Picasso |
| Title Orig: | Les cités perdues des Mayas |
| Orig Lang Code: | fr |
| Translator: | Caroline Palmer |
| Cover Artist: | Frederick Catherwood |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
| Release Number: | in collection |
| Subject: | Maya archaeology |
| Genre: | Nonfiction monograph |
| Pub Date: | 4 December 1987 23 October 2008 |
| English Pub Date: | 1992 |
| Media Type: | Print (paperback) |
| Pages: | 176 pp. |
| Isbn: | 978-2-0705-3035-9 |
| Isbn Note: | (first edition) |
| Oclc: | 798831222 |
| Preceded By: | French: Les fossiles, empreinte des mondes disparus |
| Followed By: | French: Sur des mers inconnues : Bougainville, Cook, Lapérouse |
Lost Cities of the Maya (French: '''Les cités perdues des Mayas''') is a 1987 illustrated monograph on Maya archaeology. Co-written by the French Mayanist and iconologist Claude-François Baudez and art historian Sydney Picasso, and published in pocket format by Éditions Gallimard as the volume in their "Découvertes" collection[1] (known as "Abrams Discoveries" in the United States, and "New Horizons" in the United Kingdom). The book was adapted into a documentary film of the same name in 2000.[2]
As part of the French: Archéologie series in the "Découvertes Gallimard" collection, the authors recount in the book the rediscovery of Maya civilization, and the study of archaeological sites, objects and documents discovered in the region, from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the twentieth century.
According to the tradition of "Découvertes", which is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper, as commented in L'Express, "genuine monographs, published like art books".[3]
In the choice of pictorial documents, priority is given to originality and novelty, such as the original polychrome plates made by the English explorer Frederick Catherwood, about the "Maya Empire", were gathered for this book.[4] It's almost like a "graphic novel", replete with colour plates.
The book opens with a "trailer", that is, a series of full-page archaeological photographs from Alfred Maudslay's Latin: [[Biologia Centrali-Americana]], published between 1889 and 1902. The body text is divided into six chapters:
The second part of the book, the "Documents", containing a compilation of excerpts divided into five parts:
On Babelio, the book gets an average of 3.80/5 based on 22 ratings.[5] Goodreads reported, based on 46 ratings, an average of 3.46 out of 5, indicating "generally positive opinions".[6]
In 2000, the book was adapted into a documentary film of the same name. A co-production between La Sept-Arte and Trans Europe Film, with the collaboration of Éditions Gallimard, the film was directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky, with voice-over narration by François Marthouret and Marc Zammit. It was shot in Mexico and Guatemala,[7] and broadcast on Arte as part of the television programme The Human Adventure.[8] It has been dubbed into German under the title German: Stätten und Kultur der Maya,[9] and subtitled into English and Spanish.[10]