Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/45



This manuscript was found about the year 1866 at Madrid, Spain, by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, while on a visit to the library of the Royal Historical Academy, and named by him "Manuscript Troano," in honor of its possessor, Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano.

So far as I am aware, nothing more is known in reference to its history; we are not even informed by its last owner where or how he obtained it. In ordinary cases this would be sufficient to arouse our suspicions as to its genuineness, but in this case the work itself is sufficient to dispel all such suspicions, a fact which will become apparent to the reader before reaching the end of the present paper.

This work was reproduced in fac-simile by a chromolithographic process, by the Commission Scientifique du Mexique under the auspices of the French Government, Brasseur being the editor.

The original is written on a strip of Maguey paper about 14 feet long and 9 inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a white paint or varnish, on which the characters and figures are painted in black, red, blue, and brown It is folded fan-like into thirty-five folds, presenting, when these are pressed together, the appearance of an ordinary octavo volume. The hieroglyphics and figures cover both sides of the paper, forming seventy pages; the writing and painting of the figures having been