OCR Text |
Show The only coloured edition of the Codex hitherto produced for public circulation is that made by Aglio for Lord Kingsborough. This appears in two editions, the first, sumptuously bound in gold-tooled red morocco, has the outlines of the pages in lithograph. The colours painted in by hand presumably by Aglio himself. It was published in 1831. The second edition is much more simple in appearance, bound with green morocco, and with printed pages which do not have special inset sections for the reproduction, is dated 1831. In general the 1830 edition is marred by the vivid colours which do not closely resemble the original. Blue is a garish prussian blue instead of the delicate turquoise colour of the original, yellow is harsh and over brilliant. There are a few omissions of colour, but in a hand-coloured edition this probably varies a little between the different examples. It is a curious feature that in most cases Aglio's lithographed outlines omit the dark nipples of the female figures, perhaps because he was more familiar with the delicate colouring of the fashionable ladies of the Regency period in which he worked. His line is much less firm than the work of the original tlacuilo, and some of the postures of the figures are slightly varied from the original. It is, however, a remarkably good piece of work of more than average fidelity. The arrangement of the pages shows two consecutive folios of the manuscript on each page of the volume. They proceed in order from our folio 1, and, after Folio 24, the count continues omitting the cover page, with page 25 equivalent ot our Folio 23 D. The most notable omission in the hand-coloured version is the absence of the red dividing lines on Aglio's pages 29 to 38. The 1831 edition is superior in the selection of colours which are so uniform on the paper that they seem to be colour lithograph. The |