The colors of the Codex afforded a number of questions for solution,
some of which I have cleared up and embodied in the plates; a few are I
believe insoluble. I have also been able to add a few wholly new points,
not indicated by any of the preceding editions.
Being unable to make a personal examination of the original, I prepared
from my enlarged black drawings, above mentioned, another full set
including the figures and all glyphs or other parts showing any
suggestions of color. Upon these I prepared a list of nearly 200
questions covering every detail, together with certain general
specifications, and had the whole made the subject of a careful and
exhaustive comparison with the original at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
This report, when duly returned with the various details set out, with
the various colors shown in their exact tints by water-colors, and with a
special analysis of the question of the fading of the colors, was again
checked and verified by the evidence of the three editions.
In doubtful questions arising from faded colors, I have sought to show
the condition of the original as it exists today. In the solid red
backgrounds and other places I have aimed to show as far as possible
what the Codex looked like when fresh.
This question as to what all the colors in detail were when fresh, I do
not feel that I have quite solved. The following palette scheme seems to
me about as near as the data permit us to formulate.
A permanent black, being the parts reproduced in black in the present
edition.
A brick-red, tinged with crimson, used for backgrounds, red numerals,
and probably elsewhere. This we may call unfading red.
A genuine brown, as on the animals, pages 5-a, 8-a; perhaps also
elsewhere as lining ornament.
A pale pink as flesh color on the human figures.
A blue, as on the possible katun number series on pages 23 and 24.
A turquoise-green, with varying amounts of blue tinge, on the spotted
figures and in the numeral columns of pages 15 to 18; also, with
somewhat less of the blue, for the "water" bands on pages 21 to 24.
The above colors are all definite and positive.
Then next appears a brownish color used for lining or ornamenting
various glyphs, and the clothing, headdress, etc., etc., of the figures.
We find many shades from a pale neutral up to a darker clear brown, and
also a definitely reddish, as on the tail of the bird on the right side
of page 23. This brown may be a fading of the red of the backgrounds and
numerals, but the permanence of the color in these latter places is so
positive that I believe it is not so. I think it should be regarded as
separate.
We next come to a color question related directly to decipherment, that
of the very difficult numeral columns on pages 15 to 18. There is no
practical reason discernable for the use of alternating colors save the
avoidance of confusion between bar combinations. Three bars together of
different colors stand of course for three 5's; of one color they would
make a single number 15. We therefore find here our above black, red and
blue-green alternating and clearly marked in places; but we also find
many numerals of varying shades of brownish, bistre and grayish. I
called for especial care in the examination of these points on the
original Codex, and the water-color sheets and explanatory notes show in
detail the facts of the present state of the Codex. Prior to the
examination I supposed that these faded numerals were a faded red, but
this is stated in the report to be certainly not the case; the
suggestion is made that they are probably faded blacks.
From the latter conclusion I am inclined in part to dissent, at least as
to certain passages, for two reasons. These are, first the actual
permanence of the above noted main colors, everywhere else; and second,
passages in the second columns of pages 16 and 17. In each of these we
find faded brown or gray bars, so placed between or next to plain black
bars as would give, were they faded blacks, more than three black bars
together.
Another point on page 17 is to be noted. In the top section, first
column, are five blue 3's. Some of these blue dots, as shown in the 1887
edition and in my water-colors, have faded to the same light brown seen
elsewhere. The brown and the blue 5 in the second column of this page,
middle division, as just mentioned, have also an identical chromatic
value in the photographs.
My whole conclusion therefore, so far as I can formulate one, is that in
these columns we have:
Red, black, and blue-green numerals, as shown. Some of the blue numerals
seem to have been _outlined_ with black, of which traces still appear on
the original, are seen in the photographs, and indicated in the present
color plates.
Several instances where the Codex has been rubbed so as to leave only
the outlines of original black numerals. These are now gray in the
original, and I have left them as black outlines, touched in with gray.
Finally, a number of pale brown numerals which are either faded
blue-greens, or else indicate a fourth color in the original. Which of
these alternatives is the true one, I cannot say.
* * * * *
The original Codex is still in practically as good condition as when the
three editions were taken from it. The material of which it is made is a
maguey paper of grayish tinge, and not a yellowish brown as would be
inferred from the 1887 edition. This is noteworthy, as the wearing away
of the coating with which the paper was surfaced for the writing, does
not leave a brownish place which, as in the 1887 edition, might be
mistaken for traces of applied color. This coating is indeed better
preserved in places than is shown by the 1887 edition; thus the
headdress at the extreme left of page 20, just to the right of the
restored 8 Ezanab on the present color plates, is shown with the coating
all erased and the black writing as if left on the ground-paper--which
is incorrect.