Antonio Magliabecchi (1673-1714) was the überbibliophilic librarian to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence and amassed a collection of more than 50,000 books and manuscripts which eventually formed the basis for the Biblioteca Centrale di Firenze.Among his collection was an anonymous Mexican manuscript, found by archaeologist Zelia Nuttall in the late 19th century. In 1903 she published The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans in which the glyphs contained in (what would come to be known as) the Codex Magliabecchi were reproduced in lithographs together with the original but incomplete spanish notations by 2 different hands. From reading the introduction, Nuttall concludes that the work must have been completed around 1529.
[the circles above the glyphs are date markers]The J Willard Marriot Library at the University of Utah have a complete copy of Nuttall's book online as part of their Aztec manuscripts collection. [Direct link to Codex Magliabecchi]
- The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans
- Wikipedia on Antonio Magliabecchi (worth reading)
- Short biography of Zelia Nuttall
4 comments :
There are also some anecdotes of Magliabechi here.
I can see we would be in a face-off in a spelling contest. I did search the Giornale. Heh.
But thanks for that - it was why I mentioned reading the wiki entry was worthwhile - not for the quality of writing, but for the story. I nearly abandoned the Codex side of things after reading that. Alas, there's unlikely to be too many fun pictures around associated with Mr Drabdressing hyperbrain.
the new link seems to be this one
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/Aztec&CISOPTR=238
Thanks nando - updated! (I think I might have to redo this whole post somewhere along the line.
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