Dennis Hollingsworth

Wondrous

Last week Miguel, Mirentxu and I visited NYC's Hispanic Society, located in Manhattan's Washington Heights on Broadway between 155th and 156th streets. Back in the first part of the 20th century, Archer Milton Huntington fell in love with Spain, bought deeply into Spanish art and housed his collection in his Hispanic Society. Here, you'll find El Greco, Zurbarán, Ribera, Murillo, Velázquez and fast forward to the late 19th and early 20th century, Joaquín Sorolla, who was commissioned by Huntington to paint "Visions of Spain", in which I had spun the LoopCam animated GIF above.

The Hispanic Society also has a rare books library filled with treasures such as the first edition of Don Quixote and more:

The manuscript collection, extraordinarily rich in material and scope, is the most extensive outside of Spain. It encompasses medieval charters, holograph royal letters, sailing charts, patents of nobility, illuminated bibles, and books of hours, as well as historical and literary manuscripts from the eleventh to twentieth centuries. Its 15,000 books printed before 1701 contain some 250 incunabula (books printed before 1500) as well as unique copies and first editions of many of the most significant works in Spanish literature and history.

...and even more: protected under a curtain in the center of the library is Juan Vespucci's Map of the World drawn in 1526. Wondrous!
Posted by Dennis at September 11, 2013 9:57 PM