COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 65 



the same subject printed at Seville in 1553 5 the edition of Yespucius, 

 printed at Milan in 1519 ; the History of Chiapas and Guatemala, of 

 Father Reinesal, printed at Madrid in 1619; the works of Solorzano 

 on the laws of the Indies, published in Madrid between 1629 and 1648; 

 and a variety of other works of early Spanish and Mexican writers. 



These constitute but a small portion of the riches of the National 

 Library of Spam, both in manuscript and printed works; but they 

 serve to indicate how much has yet to be examined in that country 

 before its resources relating to the early history of the New World can 

 be exhausted. 



The Provincial Library of Toledo exhibited several manuscripts relat 

 ing to the civil relations of Peru and the history and geography of the 

 Province of Guatemala, and a number of folio volumes, including dif 

 ferent papers relating to the history, the commerce, and the missionary 

 labors in North and South America. 



Among the exhibitions from private libraries in this connection was a 

 collection of postage stamps used at the present time by the various 

 Kepublics of America and a large number of other nations, the exhib 

 itor being Senor Candida de Zaragoza. 



Under No. 828 in this department, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, of the United 

 States, displayed her calculations and mathematical scheme of the 

 ancient calendar of the Mexicans already referred to and furnished for 

 the catalogue a description covering two pages as to the theory which 

 she had adopted in carrying out these extensive computations. This 

 brief resume was by no means adequate to give a clear understanding 

 as to the method by which she overcame the numerous difficulties 

 offered in this investigation. It states in brief that the Aztecs made 

 use of three different calendars, the one founded on a lunar year of 9 

 months of 265 days, the second on a solar year of 18 mouths and 365 

 days, while the third would aj)pear to have been a combination of these 

 two methods of counting. The result was that the method by count 

 ing the solar years which was the ordinary one in use, was from time 

 to time corrected by the more accurate observations of the lunar years, 

 so that at the end of 13,515 days, when the new cycle commenced, they 

 both contained the computations of the sun and the moon, the latter 

 being the first day of its appearance as a new moon, these bodies having 

 the same position in the heavens that they did at the beginning of the 

 previous cycle of the same length. A preliminary communication of 

 this subject was presented by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall to the Ninth Inter 

 national Congress of Americanists which met at Huelva, Spain, in Octo 

 ber, 1892, from which this epitome was prepared. 



Mrs. Zelia Nuttall also exhibited photographic reproductions of the 

 manuscript of the history of New Spain, written by Father Sahagun, 

 after the manuscript copy which is preserved in Italy; and also a 

 photolithographic reproduction of a valuable and unique manuscript, 

 preserved in Florence, the early publication of which she has in view. 

 H. Ex. 100 5 



