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Show H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. BOOK vn, library of the order of Bologna. Others were codes,, in which wera ~ compiled their Jaws, their rites, their cuftotns, their taxes, or tributes J and fuch are all thofe of the above mentioned colleB:ion of Mendoza; from the fourteenth to the fixty-third. Others were chronological, aft:ronomical, or a!hological, in which was reprefented their calendar, the pofition of the ft:ars, the changes of the moon, -eclipfes, and prog .• noft:ications of the variations of the weather. This kind of painting was called by them Tonalamatl. Siguenza m1kes mention (i) of a painting reprefenting fuch like prognoftications which he inferted in his Ciclographia Mexicana. Acofta relates " that in the province of Yu~ u catan there were certain volumes, bound up according to theit· , ' . " manner, in which the wife Indians had marked the diftribution 'of " their feafons, the knowledge of the planets, of animals, and othe1· " natural produCl:ions, and alfo their antiquity; things all highly cu" rious and- minutely defcribed :" which, as the fame author fays, were lofr by· the indifcre~t zeal of an ecclefiaftic, who, imagining them to be full of !uperftitious meanings, burned them, to the great grief of the Indians, and the utmofl: regret of the curious amongfl: the Spaniards. Other paintings were topographical, or chorographical, which ferved . not otily to !hew' the extent and boundaries of poifeffions, but likewife the fituation of places, the direCtion .of the coafts, and the conrfe of rivers. Cortes fays, in his firft letter to Charles V. that having made enquiries to know if there was any fecure harbour for vefiCls in the Mexican gulf, Montezuma prefented him a painting of the whole coafr, from the port of Cba!chiuhcuecan, where at prefent Vera Cruz lies, td the river Coatzacualco. Bernal Diaz relates, that Cortes alfo, in a long and ditticult voyage which he made to the Bay of Honduras, made . ufe of a chart which was prefented to him by the lords of Coatzacualco, in which all the places and rivers were marked from the coaft of Coatzacualco to H uejacallan, The Mexican empire abounded with all thofe kinds of paintings .1 for their painters were innumerable, and there was hardly a11y thing left unpainted. If thofe had been preferved, there v.:ould have been nothing wanting to the hiftory of Mexico; but the fi.dl: preachers of ~ (i) ln his work entitled, Libra Aj/roltOIIIica, pri1.tcd in Mexico. the H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. the gofpel, .fufpicious th~t fuperfl:ition was mixed with all their paiptings, BOOK Viii. made a funous de.fl:ruchon of them. Of all thofe which were to be ''---..-. ..J· found in Tezcuco, where the chief fchool of painting was, they col- .leCl:ed fuch a mafs, in the fquare of the market, it appeared like a little mountain; to this they fet fire and buried in the afhes the memory of many moft interefting and curious events. The lofs of thofe monu-ments of antiquity was inexpref1ibly affiiCl:ing to the Indians, andre-gretted fuH1ciently afterwards by the authors of it, when they became fenfible of their error; for they were compelled to endeavour to re-medy the evil, in the firl1: place by obtaining information from the _ . mouths of the Indians; fecondly, by collcCl:ing all the paintings which had e(caped their fury, to illufrrate the hifi:ory of the nation; but although they recovered many, the{e were not fufficient; for from that time forward, the poffe!fors of paintings became fo jealous of their prefervativn and concealment from. the Spaniards, it has proved difficult, if not irnpoffible to make them part with one of them. The cloth on which they painted was made of the thread of the maguei, or aloe, or the palm lcxotJ(k), dreifcd fkins, or paper. , They made paper of the leaves of a certain fpccies of aloe, .fl:eepcd together like hemp, and afterwards w.l£hed, fl:retched, and fmoothed. They made alfo of the palm Icxotl, and the thin barks of other trees, when united and prepared with a certain gum, both filk. and cot-ton; but we are unable to explain any particulars of this manu£tCl:ure. We have had in our hands feveral ilieets of Mexican paper: it is fimi-lar in the thicknefs to the pafteboard of Europe, but fofter, fmootl1er, and eafy for writing. · In general they made their paper in very long {beets, which they preferved rolled up like the ancient membranes of Europe, or folded ~P like bed-ikreens. The volume of Mexican paintings, which is preferved in the library of Bologna, is a thick ikin ill - dreifed, compofed of different pieces, painted all over, and folded up in that manner. The beautiful c0lours which they employed both in their paintings and in their dyes, were obtained from wood, from leaves, and the (k) The coarfe cloth on which the f:unous image of the Virgin of Guadaloup is painted, is of the pahn l c.Yotl. flowers S E C T. XLV liT. Cloths and colours. |
