dilleras and the
Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of America bears on the title page
the year 1810, which certainly means only the year in which the printing
was begun, the preface being dated 1813. To this work, which gave a
mighty impulse to the study of Central American languages and
literatures, belongs the Atlas pittoresque, and in this are found, on
page 45, the reproductions of five pages of our manuscript. They are Nos.
47, 48, 50, 51, and 52 of Lord Kingsborough. In the volume of text
belonging to this atlas Humboldt discusses our manuscript on pp. 266,
267. When he began his work he knew nothing as yet of the existence of
the manuscript. It was brought to his knowledge by Boettiger, whose above
named work he cites. Here we learn for the first time that the material
of the manuscript consists of the plant metl (_Agave Mexicana_,) like
other manuscripts that Humboldt had brought from New Spain. Furthermore,
he correctly states the length of leaf as 0.295 and the breadth 0.085
meter. On the other hand, he commits two mistakes in saying that there
are 40 leaves and that the whole folded table forming the codex has a
length of almost 6 meters, for there are only 39 leaves and the length in
question is only 3.5 meters, as calculation will approximately show,
because the leaves are written on both sides. Humboldt's other remarks do
not immediately concern our problem.

"In 1822 Fr. Ad. Ebert, then secretary and later head librarian,
published his History and Description of the Royal Public Library at
Dresden. Here we find, as well in the history (p. 66) as in the
description (p. 161), some data concerning this 'treasure of highest
value,' which indeed contain nothing new, but which certainly contributed
to spread the knowledge of the subject among wider circles. We may remark
right here that H. L. Fleischer, in his Catalogue of Oriental Manuscript
Codices in the Royal Library of Dresden, p. 75, Leipzig, 1831, 4^o, makes
but brief mention of our codex, as 'a Mexican book of wood, illustrated
with pictures, which awaits its OEdipus;' whereupon he cites the writing
of Boettiger. The signature of the manuscript here noted, E 451, is the
one still in use.

"Between the above mentioned notices by Ebert and Fleischer falls the
first and so far the only complete reproduction of the manuscript.
Probably in 1826, there appeared at Dresden the Italian Augustino Aglio,
a master of the art of making fac similes by means of tr