Title: Il manoscritto messicano Vaticano 3773 /
Authors: Ehrle, Franz,; Paso y Troncoso, Francisco del,; Loubat, J. F.; Paso y Troncoso, Francisco del,; Paso y Troncoso, Francisco del,; Biblioteca apostolica vaticana; International Congress of Americanists
Date: 1896
Publisher: Stabilimento Danesi,
Physical description: 1 folded strip (continuous strip; [49] leaves = 96 pages) : all color ill. ; sheet 13 x 722 cm., accordion folded to 13 x 15 cm. +
Language: Italian
LC classification: F
Abstract: A photo-chromolithographic facsimile of the pre-Hispanic Mexican polychrome Codex Vaticanus B (3773), a Nahuatl ritual and divinitory manuscript.
Notes: Title and imprint from pamphlet 1 title page. The original, a Nahua ritual manuscript, consists of 10 pieces of prepared deerskin of varying length, glued together to form a continuous strip measuring above 735 x 12.6 cm, covered with pictographic writing (hieroglyphs) on both sides; the facsimile codex, pictorial throughout, has 49 unnumbered leaves that have modern numbered pages 1-96 (page numbers printed and added in red for the facsimile page numbering). The 1896 facsimile and the 3 descriptive texts (pamphlets) are issued in wooden case, half bound, lettered on spine and inside wooden case front cover: Codice messicano vaticano no. 3773. Two leaves of the full-color facsimile codex are pasted to wooden boards and are written only on the exposed side/leaf, while the other leaves are written on both sides. The 3 pamphlets comprise the preface (16 pages) with title page as above (preface in Italian by Franz Ehrle); Los libros de Anáhuac, memoria presentada por Francisco del Paso y Troncoso al Congreso de americanistas que se reunió en México del 15 al 20 de octubre de 1895 (23 pages) [lecture]; and an English translation of the lecture (16 pages). "The manuscript belongs to the so-called Borgia Group (the only manuscript in the group that is preserved in its original form, complete with binding). The dating and localization of these manuscripts remains problematic and there are differences in style within the group (Vatican B shows more Mixtec influences than some of the others). They are thought to have been produced by the Tlaxacans, a Nahuatl (Aztec)-speaking group about 100 km east and southeast of Mexico City that was culturally distinct from the Aztec, who were in fact their enemies. It probably dates from the last decades of the 15th century. The Talxacans sided with the Spanish against the Aztec, so the early conquistadors  are likely to have acquired several of their manuscripts."--Asher Rare Books & Antiquariaat FORUM datasheet. "Nothing is known about the ownership of the manuscript before it came to the Vatican Library (probably between 1565 and 1570, and certainly before 1589). Pope Leo XIII gave Joseph Florimund (1837-1921), American bibliophile and philanthropist, the title Duc de Loubat in 1893. He supported the Vatican Library financially and financed the production of the ... facsimile."--Asher Rare Books & Antiquariaat FORUM datasheet. "The facsimile was produced in an edition of fifty copies."--Asher Rare Books & Antiquariaat FORUM datasheet.
Subject headings (LCSH): Aztec calendar; Aztec mythology.; Aztecs--Religion; Facsimiles.; Indians of Mexico--Languages--Writing; Manuscripts, Mexican--Facsimiles.; Manuscripts, Nahuatl--Facsimiles.; Manuscripts, Nahuatl--Vatican City--Facsimiles.; Nahuatl language--Writing.