author

Philipp J. J. (Philipp Johann Josef) Valentini

1828–1899

An adventurous 19th-century scholar, this Berlin-born writer moved from Central American exploration into close study of Maya and Mexican antiquities. His books and papers show a restless mind fascinated by ancient scripts, monuments, and the early history of the Americas.

1 Audiobook

Mexican Copper Tools: The Use of Copper by the Mexicans Before the Conquest; and the Katunes of Maya History, a Chapter in the Early History of Central America, With Special Reference to the Pio Perez Manuscript.

Mexican Copper Tools: The Use of Copper by the Mexicans Before the Conquest; and the Katunes of Maya History, a Chapter in the Early History of Central America, With Special Reference to the Pio Perez Manuscript.

by Philipp J. J. (Philipp Johann Josef) Valentini

About the author

Born in Berlin in 1828 to a German mother and an Italian father, he studied in Torgau and at the University of Berlin before leaving for Costa Rica. Sources about his life credit him with helping found the seaport of Puerto Limón in 1854, and by the late 1850s he had returned to the United States, eventually making New York his base.

He became known for research on the pre-Columbian cultures of Central America and Mexico, especially Maya writing and the Mexican calendar stone. His published work ranged widely, from studies of the Olmecs and Toltecs to essays on Palenque tablets and Columbus's landfall, showing the broad curiosity of a scholar working at a time when American archaeology and anthropology were still taking shape.

His surviving papers at Cornell preserve that lifelong dedication in detail: manuscripts, notebooks, tracings of hieroglyphs, drawings, correspondence, and unpublished drafts. He died in New York City on March 16, 1899.