San Francisco Frontiers - Codices offer glimpse of centuries-old Mexican life

The illustrated documents showing key events in Mexican history had been in the hands of a family that treasured them for generations before giving them up for a hefty sum, the anthropologists announced.

Baltazar Brito, director of the National Library of Anthropology and History, hailed the discovery of the three codices as "unprecedented."

They reveal traditional Indigenous script that "until today had remained hidden from public vision," the historian said as he presented photographs and video of the documents to the media.

The codices were produced in the late 16th century and early 17th century by painters and illustrators who served as scribes in pre-Hispanic Mexico and remained active during the colonial period, Brito added.

They narrate such events as the foundation of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in the 14th century and the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519.

The pictographs are notable for their yellow, red, black and blue colors, and the "technical mastery" of the artists, said Maria Castaneda, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

"It's as if a Rembrandt, a Murillo or a Velazquez appeared in Europe today," added Castaneda, who first saw photographs of the codices 15 years ago when the owners wanted to confirm their authenticity.

The family, which asked to remain unnamed, were paid 9.5 million pesos ($569,000) for the codices, according to Altagracia Gomez Sierra, who chairs the board of trustees of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

S.Jackson--SFF