The Mesoamerican Codex Re-entangled
Production, Use and Re-use of Pre-colonial Documents
9789087282639
9789400602618
Distributed for Leiden University Press
The Mesoamerican Codex Re-entangled
Production, Use and Re-use of Pre-colonial Documents
This innovative work aims to piece together the cultural biography of Mesoamerica’s precolonial codices. Today, fewer than twenty manuscripts are all that remain of the Mesoamerican book-making tradition. These pictographic and hieroglyphic texts have often been researched according to their content, but such studies have ignored their nature as material objects. By tracing the paths these books have followed over the past five hundred years, Ludo Snijders offers fascinating insights into their production, use and reuse, destruction, rediscovery, and reinvention.
232 pages | illustrated in color throughout | 8 x 10 3/4 | © 2017
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Summary
Introduction
1 Materials for Writing
1.1 The Writing Surface
1.2 Identification of Colourants
Black
Red
Yellow
Blue
Other Colours
1.3 Covers
1.4 Adhesives
Discussion and Conclusions
2 The Practice of Codex Making
2.1 Making the Support
2.2 Making Paint
2.3 The Process of Writing
2.4 Covers
2.5 Tools
Discussion and Conclusion
3 The Lifecycle of the Mesoamerican Codices
3.1 Context of Using a Religious Codex
3.2 Using a Historical Codex
3.3 Secondary Uses and Non-use
3.4 Decay of Books
3.5 Disposal or Reinvigoration
Discussion and Conclusions
4 Demons and Colonization, the Destruction of Written Culture
4.1 Christian Perception of Evil and the Other
4.2 The Internal Demon
4.3 The Effect of the European Middle Ages on the Mesoamerican Codices
Discussion and Conclusions
5 Reproduction of the Codices
5.1 Antiquities of Mexico
5.2 The Age of Photography
5.3 Digital Reproduction
5.4 Re-producing Codices
Discussion and Conclusions
6 Recovery of a Hidden Chapter in the Life of Codex Añute
6.1 Description of the Codex
6.2 The Investigation of the Añute Palimpsest in the 1950’s
6.3 The Techniques of the 2012-2016 Science-Arts Investigation
6.4 The Visible Areas
6.5 Hyperspectral Results Revealing Sub-surface Images
Discussion and Conclusions
7 Conclusion and Reflections
References
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
List of Figures
List of Tables
Curriculum Vitae of the Author
Summary
Introduction
1 Materials for Writing
1.1 The Writing Surface
1.2 Identification of Colourants
Black
Red
Yellow
Blue
Other Colours
1.3 Covers
1.4 Adhesives
Discussion and Conclusions
2 The Practice of Codex Making
2.1 Making the Support
2.2 Making Paint
2.3 The Process of Writing
2.4 Covers
2.5 Tools
Discussion and Conclusion
3 The Lifecycle of the Mesoamerican Codices
3.1 Context of Using a Religious Codex
3.2 Using a Historical Codex
3.3 Secondary Uses and Non-use
3.4 Decay of Books
3.5 Disposal or Reinvigoration
Discussion and Conclusions
4 Demons and Colonization, the Destruction of Written Culture
4.1 Christian Perception of Evil and the Other
4.2 The Internal Demon
4.3 The Effect of the European Middle Ages on the Mesoamerican Codices
Discussion and Conclusions
5 Reproduction of the Codices
5.1 Antiquities of Mexico
5.2 The Age of Photography
5.3 Digital Reproduction
5.4 Re-producing Codices
Discussion and Conclusions
6 Recovery of a Hidden Chapter in the Life of Codex Añute
6.1 Description of the Codex
6.2 The Investigation of the Añute Palimpsest in the 1950’s
6.3 The Techniques of the 2012-2016 Science-Arts Investigation
6.4 The Visible Areas
6.5 Hyperspectral Results Revealing Sub-surface Images
Discussion and Conclusions
7 Conclusion and Reflections
References
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
List of Figures
List of Tables
Curriculum Vitae of the Author