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302 Mediterranean Reception in the Americas
tens of metres, likewise the snakes and even more so the myths,
which are fertilized by heavy rains, intense heat, and the
imaginations of scholars and explorers. Our next instance of
Mediterranean reception in the New World comes to light in
the very heart of the Amazon, from the extravagant work of a
numismatist and palaeographer named Bernardo de Azevedo da
Silva Ramos, the son of a rich family in Manaus who devoted
himself seriously to ancient studies, learning several ancient
languages and later spending long sojourns in Greece, Syria,
and Egypt. He studied archaeology, epigraphy, and history, and
put together a personal collection of around 12,000 coins. The
catalogue of his ancient coins was published in four volumes, in
1900, under the auspices of the Accademia dei Lincei and with
the help of his correspondents at the Royal Universities of
Genoa and Rome, who wrote the preface and co-published
three of the four volumes. 19 He had a high reputation and
held some important international positions. 20
After being recognized as a serious numismatist and geographer,
he dedicated himself to solving one of the greatest
challenges of pre-Columbian history and archaeology, trying
to find a meaning in the various drawings that have been found
on many pre-Columbian sites in America. Despite all the oddity
of his propositions, they were constructed and reproduced with
the formal appearance of good scientific practice, and were
buttressed by much evidence and semantic analysis, as well
as by extensive bibliographical references. They were accepted
19 Bernardo de Azevedo da Silva Ramos, Catálogo da Coleção Numismática
(Rome, 1900), 4 vols. (preface and revision by Professor Dr. Vincenzo Grossi,
‘Libero Docente di etnologia nella R. Universitá di Genova’, and Professor
Dante Vaglieri, ‘Libero Docente di antichità romana e di epigrafia latina nella
R. Universitá di Roma’).
20 The list of titles and honorary fellowships beneath his photograph taken
before the presentation of the book includes: honorary fellow of the Historical
and Geographical Institute of São Paulo (IHGSP), correspondent of the
Geographical Society of Rio de Janeiro, the Ceará Institute, and the International
Society of Academic History in France; President of Honor of the
Geographical and Historical Institute of the Amazon; former vice-president of
the international jury of group and class in the Universal and International
Fair of Brussels of 1910; honorary member of the Académie Latine des
Sciences, Arts and Belles Lettres de la France, etc.