Princeton
Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 5
Title: Quipu
Date: before 1600
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The only known form of pre-Columbian "writing" in South America is the Incan quipu. Incan clerks, known as quipucamayo, were trained to record and translate these quipus as "memoranda or registers made from strands of cord, in which different knots and colors signify different things. It is incredible what they have comprehended in this way, for what books can say of histories, laws, ceremonies, and business accounts... is provided very precisely by the quipu," wrote a Spanish colonial observer. This 51-strand quipu is typical of surviving examples, which date from the 13th and 16th centuries.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Material and Layout: 1 item (a fifty-one strand Inca quipu); 78 x 101 cm.
PROVENANCE
Gift of Gerard B. Lambert, ca. 1975.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth P. Benson. "The Quipu: 'Written' Texts in Ancient Peru," Princeton
University Library Chronicle 37, no. 1 (1975). pp. 11-23.
Princeton
Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 6
Title: Memoria de Manuel, Custodio, primera en esta pueblo, de [Zipioso]
Date: 1871
Language(s): Spanish, Nahuatl and some Latin
SCOPE AND CONTENT
A miscellany of prayers, benedictions, and liturgical texts.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Material and Layout: Paper; 97 leaves; 21 x 16 cm.
Binding: Original leather
PROVENANCE
Early provenance unknown.
Princeton
Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 7
Title: Hieroglyphic Text
Date: unknown
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
Copy or forgery of an unidentified text on parchment, n.d.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Material and Layout: 1 item on modern parchment; 280 x 2980 mm.
PROVENANCE
unknown
Princeton
Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 8
Title: Aztec Map with glyphs
Date: 18th or 19th century
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
A later copy of a historical map dealing with a migration of the Mexica, or Aztec, from Tollan to Tenochtitlan. May be related to BNF MS. Mex. 85, cf. Geschichte der Azteken.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Material and Layout: 1 item on modern leather; 320 x 920 mm.
PROVENANCE
There is a small label "942" on upper right corner.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Geschichte der Azteken: Der Codex Aubin und verwandte Dokumente.
Guenter Vollmer (ed.), Ibero-Amerikanischen Institut Pruessischer Kulturbesitz/Gebr.
Mann Verlag, Berlin.
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