The Search for the Codex Cardona: On the Trail of a Sixteenth-Century Mexican Treasure

by Arnold Bauer

In The Search for the Codex Cardona , Arnold J. Bauer tells the story of his experiences on the trail of a cultural treasure, a Mexican “painted book” that first came into public view at Sotheby’s auction house in London in 1982, nearly four hundred years after it was presumably made by Mexican artists and scribes. On folios of amate paper, the Codex includes two oversized maps and 300 painted illustrations accompanied by text in sixteenth-century paleography. The Codex relates the trajectory of the Nahua people to the founding of the capital of Tenochtitlán and then focuses on the consequences of the Spanish conquest up to the 1550s. If authentic, the Codex Cardona is an invaluable record of early Mexico. Yet there is no clear evidence of its origin, what happened to it after 1560, or even where it is today, after its last known appearance at Christie’s auction house in New York in 1998. Bauer first saw the Codex Cardona in 1985 in the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, where scholars from Stanford and the University of California were attempting to establish its authenticity. Allowed to gently lift a few pages of this ancient treasure, Bauer was hooked. By 1986, the Codex had again disappeared from public view. Bauer’s curiosity about the Codex and its whereabouts led him down many forking paths—from California to Seville and Mexico City, to the Firestone Library in Princeton, to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Christie’s in New York—and it brought him in contact with an international cast of curators, agents, charlatans, and erudite book dealers. The Search for the Codex Cardona is a mystery that touches on issues of cultural patrimony, the workings of the rare books and manuscripts trade, the uncertainty of archives and evidence, and the ephemerality of the past and its remains.

Genres: History

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Donna LaValley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book begins when the author accompanies several experts in a viewing of a “painted book” or codex reputed to have been created in the 1550’s shortly after Cortes took power in what is now Mexico City. This takes in 1985. The book is a record of life, leaders, events, and maps of early Mexico. Stanford does not accept the “book” even for extensive study because there is no solid provenance and preliminary carbon dating has been adverse to its antiquity. The author, from time to time over the next 20 years, tries to discover the truth about this Codex Cardona by interviewing myriad historians, collectors, agents, and dealers from Spain to Mexico. He learns that the Getty museum, Sotheby's, and Christie’s also declined to purchase or commission it. Eventually, he discovers and meets the elusive man, Don Esquivel, who “owned” it during most of those years, but who claims it was stolen after its appearance in New York (Christie’s). Despite following up rumors and leads, the author is unable to find out where the Codex is now located.

The aspects of the book I most enjoyed were the color photos and the discussions, pro and con, regarding the paper and the historical “proofs” of seeing, on the Codex’s maps, several buildings and dams not uncovered until after the Codex was seen in the 1980’s. What I didn’t like were the needless repetitions, especially of the speculations. I thought the torn-off piece the author had in his possession should have been tested for this book’s content, and I thought recounting the return of the slides to Don Esquivel should have been included, with some closure there. Overall, the subject is interesting whether the Codex was 450 years old or a forgery, but the unfolding of the story could have been organized into a more comprehensible whole. The author himself wrote: “Here, of course, I have once more entered the realm of speculation in the midst of unknowable things.” The author’s frustration has been understood (and shared). The last sentence: “It’s gone…I think forever. But there were a few things to be said about it.” I’ll be happy to learn more if the Codex or any of its pages comes back into view.

[Milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semi interesting modern story of one man's 20 year search for a rare 16th century Mexican Codice [illustated manuscript:]. The author strays from the story line, and your interest, as he weaves in an imaginary homosexual relationship between two charactors within the text and has a horrible habit of repetition. Started out very interesting and ended up about 100 pages longer than needed to clearly tell his story.

[Stacie · Rating 2 out of 5]

zzzzzz......was I reading this? Oh yeah. zzzzzzz.... Interesting insight into a codex which I'll never lay eyes on, and this person can barely prove with certainty exists. zzzz... I liked the pictures. Where did he steal these? Not the book I thought it was going to be. Disappointing.

[bibliotekker Holman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is little that I like better than a mystery regarding a lost or newly discovered ancient text. Although the subject (the Codex Cardona) is fascinating, the author weaves the story in such a way as to make it difficult to follow. Overall it was a good read.

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was an idea for a short essay in a scientific magazine strettttttchhhhhhed into a book. Too much uninteresting detail about yet again the next dead end trail that he took to find something that he never ended up finding. Boring.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good idea. Good research. Insufferable writing.