EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS.
I have said that many hieroglyphic manuscripts, saved from the fires kindled by Zumárraga's bigotry, or copied by ecclesiastical permission before serving as food for their purifying flames, were sent to Spain by the conquerors. After lying forgotten for a few centuries, attention was again directed to these relics of an extinct civilization, and their importance began to be appreciated; search was made throughout Europe, and such scattered remnants as survived their long neglect were gathered and deposited in public and private libraries. Eight or ten such collections were formed and their contents were for the most part published by Lord Kingsborough.
The Codex Mendoza was sent by the viceroy Mendoza to Charles V., and is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is a copy on European paper, coarsely done with a pen, and rolled instead of folded. Another manuscript in the Escurial Library is thought by Prescott to be the original of this codex, but Humboldt calls it also a copy. An explanation of the codex in Aztec and Spanish accompanies it, added by natives at the order of Mendoza. It has been several times published, and is divided in three parts, the first being historical, the second composed of tribute-rolls, and the third illustrative of domestic life and manners.[646]
The Codex Vaticanus (No. 3738) is preserved at Rome in the Vatican Library, and nothing is known of its origin further than that it was copied by Pedro de los Rios, who was in Mexico in 1566. It is divided into two parts, mythological and historical, and has a partial explanation in Italian. Another manuscript, (No. 3776) preserved in the same library, is written on skin, has been interpreted to some extent by Humboldt, and is supposed to pertain to religious rites. The Codex Telleriano-Remensis, formerly in the possession of M. Le Tellier, and now in the Royal Library at Paris, is nearly identical with the Codex Vaticanus (No. 3738), having only one figure not found in that codex, but itself lacking many. It has, however, an explanation in Aztec and Spanish.[647]
The Codex Borgian was deposited in the College of the Propaganda at Rome by Cardinal Borgia, who found it used as a plaything by the children in the Gustiniani family. It is written on skin, and appears to be a ritual and astrologic almanac very similar to the Vatican manuscript (No. 3776). It is accompanied by an interpretation or commentary by Fabrega. The Codex Bologna, preserved in the library of the Scientific Institute, was presented in 1665 to the Marquis de Caspi, by Count Valerio Zani. It is written on badly prepared skin, and appears to treat of astrology. A copy exists in the Museum of Cardinal Borgia at Veletri. Of the Codex Vienna nothing is known except that it was given in 1677 to the Emperor Leopold by the Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, and that its resemblance to the manuscripts at Rome and Veletri would indicate a common origin. Four additional manuscripts from the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and one belonging to M. de Fejérvary in Hungary, are published by Kingsborough. Nothing is known of the origin of these, nor has any interpretation been attempted, although the last-named seems to be historical or chronological in its nature.[648]
PICTURE-WRITINGS PRESERVED IN MEXICO.
I have said that many manuscripts, mostly copies, but probably some originals, were preserved from destruction, and retained in Mexico. Material is not accessible for a complete detailed history of these documents, nor does it seem desirable to attempt here to disentangle the numerous contradictory statements on the subject. The surviving remnants of the Tezcucan archives, with additions from various sources, were inherited by Ixtlilxochitl, the lineal descendant of Tezcuco's last king, who used them extensively if not always judiciously in his voluminous historical writings. The collection of which these documents formed a nucleus may be traced more or less clearly to the successive possession of Sigüenza, the College of San Pedro y San Pablo, Boturini Benaduci, the Vice-regal Palace, Veytia, Ortega, Leon y Gama, Pichardo, Sanchez, and at last to the National Museum of the University of Mexico, its present and appropriate resting-place. Frequent interventions of government and private law-suits interrupted this line of succession, and the collection by no means passed down the line intact. Under the care of several of the owners large portions of the accumulation were scattered; but on the other hand, several by personal research greatly enlarged their store of aboriginal literature. While in Sigüenza's possession the documents were examined by the Italian traveler Gemelli Careri, through whose published work one of the most important of the pictured records was made known to the world. This latter has been often republished and will be given as a specimen in this chapter.[649] Clavigero studied the manuscripts in the Jesuit College of San Pedro y San Pablo in 1759.[650] Boturini was a most indefatigable collector, his accumulation in eight years amounting to over five hundred specimens, some of them probably antedating the Spanish conquest. He published a catalogue of his treasures, which were for the most part confiscated by the government and deposited in the palace of the viceroy, where many of the documents are said to have been destroyed or damaged by dampness and want of care. Those retained by the collector were even more unfortunate, since the vessel on which they were sent to Europe was taken by an English pirate, and the papers have never since been heard of. Only a few fragments from the Boturini collection have ever been published, the most important of which, a history of the Aztec migration, has been often reproduced, and will be given in this chapter. The original was seen by Humboldt in the palace of the viceroy, and is now in the Mexican Museum.[651]
The confiscated documents passed by order of the Spanish government into the hands of Veytia, or at least he was permitted to use them in the preparation of his history,[652] and after his death and the completion of his work by Ortega, they passed, not without a lawsuit, into the possession of Leon y Gama, the astronomer.[653] On the death of Gama a part of his manuscripts were sold to Humboldt to form the Berlin collection published by Kingsborough;[654] the rest came into the hands of Pichardo, Gama's executor, who spent his private fortune in improving his collection, described by Humboldt as the richest in Mexico. Many of Pichardo's papers were scattered during the revolution, and the remainder descended through his executor Sanchez to the Museum.[655] It is not unlikely either that the French intervention in later years was also the means of sending some picture-writings to Europe. Of the documents removed from the Mexican collections on different occasions and under different pretexts, M. Aubin claims to have secured the larger part, which are now in his collection in Paris, with copies of such manuscripts as he has been unable to obtain in the original form.[656]
HIEROGLYPHIC DEVELOPMENT.