192 
lections of original paintings existed in the Va^ 
tican. It would seem, that one of these collec- 
♦ 
tions is entirely lost, unless it is that which is 
seen in the library of the Institute of Bologna ; 
the other was found in 1785 by the Jesuit Fa- 
brega, aftef fifteen years search. 
The Codex Vaticanus, No. 3776, of which 
Acosta and Kircher have made mention*, is 
7*87”", or thirty-one palms and a half, long, and 
0*1 9"", or seven inches, square : its forty-eight 
foldings form ninety-six pages, or as many divi- 
sions marked on both sides of several doe skins 
glued together. Every page is subdivided into 
two compartments ; but the whole manuscript 
contains only 176 of these compartments, be- 
cause the first eight pages consist of the simple 
hieroglyphics of the days, arranged in parallel 
rows close to each other. The thirteenth plate 
of the Picturesque Atlas is an exact copy of one 
of these folds, or a page of the Codex Vaticanus* 
As all the pages are alike with respect to the 
general arrangement, this copy is sufficient to 
give an idea of the whole book. 
The border of each fold is divided into twen- 
ty-six small compartments, which contain the 
simple hieroglyphics of the days. These hiero- 
glyphics are twenty in number, which form 
periodical series. As the small cycles are of 
* Zoega, De Orig. Obeliscor. p. 631. 
