A Study of the Manuscript Troano

An excerpt from the beginning of the first chapter: 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 facsimile 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 executed, apparently, after the paper was folded, so that this does not interfere with the writing. The facsimile edition is divided into two parts, paged separately; the first part containing thirty-five pages or plates, numbered with simple Roman numerals from I to XXXV; the second with Roman numerals accompanied by a star, thus: XII*; but this part has only thirty-four pages, numbered I* to XXXIV*; the first plate, which appears to be - as Brasseur has designated it - the "title page," is not numbered. The two parts I presume are made to correspond with the two sides of the original; the title page being at the end of one side and forming the page on the first fold. The lines and columns of written characters are uniformly black, some of the numeral characters red, others black; the pictorial portions are usually red, brown, or blue, but occasionally varied with black, and often simply outline figures. The background of the compartments or spaces on which the figures are painted is usually white, but in some cases it is blue, in others, brown or red. Several of the plates are more or less damaged; all of the imperfections, as it is claimed, being reproduced in the facsimile edition."