The colored engraving is an illustration of the picture writing of the Mexicans, from Lord Kingsborough’s great work. The blue border represents a series of years, distinguished by the dots. The compartment with five dots representing the fifth year of the reign, that with ten the tenth, and so on. The pictures of the acts of the Prince being connected with each special year by means of a connecting line. The additional symbols have different significations—that of the flower signifying a calamitous year, &c. In this plate King Acamapich is represented in the first and sixth year of his reign; at the top of the page are warlike instruments, signifying his preparation for war; the figures below, on the right, are the four cities—Quahnahuac, Mezquic, Cuitlhuac and Xochimilco—represented by descriptive symbols. The four heads on the left are those of the respective kings or chiefs of these cities, beheaded by Acamapich, each distinguished by the iconographic symbol by which his name was expressed in this system of writing.
These picture records, which would have illustrated the unknown history of this continent, were destroyed in “mountain heaps” by the first Spanish archbishop of Mexico—an act of fanatical vandalism equalled only by the burning of the Alexandrian Library, and the vast hoard of Moorish literature at Granada by Ximenes.
Pl. 1.
1.
[Hieratic text]
2.
...μασιν.στερον πο.αι
...ιψόμεθα ὅταν δὲ πε.
...αν καὶ δόξαν ἐ[κ] τοῦ
μαθήματος φῶσι περιγί-
νεσθαι λέγωμεν ὅτι
<π>κο<λ>ι-
νά τε προφέρονται πολ-
λ<α>ῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων καὶ
λειπόμενα [π]λειόνων καὶ
3.
ναὶ οὐ Ἀλκμὰν ὁ ποιητὴς
οὕτως ἀπεφαίνετο οὐ-
4.
Διοσκουρίδης Δωρίωνι χαίρειν. τῆς πρὸς
Δωρίωνα ἐπιστολῆς τὸ ἀντίγραφον ὑπόκει-
Snyder Black & Sturn 92 William St
Pl. 2.
5.
teterrimus
et ex hac vel
homines heretici maxime
quia non ds illam dedit
-catur; quia et legem ds dedit
-varet propter certam
6.
[Phœnician text]
7.
κῡ, καὶ προσοίσουσιν
οἱ υἱοὶ Ααρων οἱ ἱερεῖς
8.
ἐξῆλθεν δὲ
-τησιν αὐτῷ
Snyder Black & Sturn 92 William St
Pl. 3.
9.
κϛʹ Ξανδικ[ο]ῦ αʹ Θῶυθ κεʹ
10.
[flourish representing “I(n) C(hristi) N(omine)”] Childeberths
11.
Et nostra indulgentia in aelimosina
12.
Et ut huĩs cõplacitationis pceptũ firmũ stabileq;
13.
abbas sirum pater
14.
quotienscumque petitionib[us]
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Pl. 4.
15.
Nirsatimini curio annso
16.
W rex anglo[rum]
17.
KAROLVS
18.
in eisdem degentium orem nostre celsitudinis
19.
h. dei gra rex
20.
S rex—Anno m.cxxix
21.
Ricard di gra Rex Angl
22.
IN þe biginyng was þe wrd and þe
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