| OCR Text |
Show region of Mexico was the homeland of Dona Marina (Ce Malinalli) of Painalla. The Codex is very closely similar in format, page size, colour, and style of art to two other works: Codices Fejervary Mayer in the Liverpool City Museum, and Codex Cospiano in the University Library, Bologna. These three differ from all other works of the kind known to us. Their closest companion is the magnificent Codex Borgia, which is artistically much more complex, but has the same format though on twice the scale of the others. There is no relationship with Mixtec codices, the art style is not Mixtec, and the deities are not those shown most frequently in Mixtec works. Also the format is not similar. The conclusion to be drawn is that it is the more probable view that the Codex is one of a small group of works obtained on the Coast of Vera Cruz. It is not unlikely but so far beyond proof, that these documents were among the first consignment of Mexican treasures sent by Hernando Cortes to Charles V. If so there is little reason for thinking that they were retained in Spain. Fejervary Mayer reached Liverpool via Hungary. Cospiano is in'Northern Italy, and Laud may well have had some eastern European lodgement before it came to Oxford. But once again we must stress that all direct evidence of the history of the Codex begins when Archbishop William Laud presented it to Bodley's Library in the University of Oxford in 1636. |
