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Codice Messicano Vaticano no. 3773
Roma, Stabilimento Danesi, 1896. An 1896 facsimile of a Precolumbian Mexican codex produced by the Duke of Loubat from the original housed in the Vatican library. Joseph Florimond Loubat, whose title was conferred on him by Pope Leo XIII in recognition of his large gifts to the Catholic Church, was an American philanthropist who had, among other things, an interest in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican history and archaeology. In particular, he studied and wrote commentaries on a number of the surviving pre-Columbian codices, including this one. In 1896, to correct an error in an earlier description and transliteration of this particular codex, he commissioned a facsimile edition to be done using photochromography, reproducing the entire 48 leaves of the folding codex, as well as reproducing the wooden binding of the codex. Fifty copies of the facsimile were created, each housed in a folding wood-and-leather box along with three pamphlets about the codex, one in English, one in Italian, and one in Spanish. The facsimile codex and the three pamphlets are here present and complete as issued; each bears ex-library markings from a no longer extant Catholic school. A rare edition: OCLC locates only three copies. Very good, in the (damaged) original quarter leather wooden box. [#029143] SOLD

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