206 
AZTECK HIEROGLYPHICS, 
FROM THE 
MANUSCRIPT OF VELETRI. 
PLATE XV. 
Of all the Mexican manuscripts preserved in 
Italy, the Codex Borgianus of Veletri is the 
largest, and the most remarkable for the splendor 
and extreme variety of the colours. It is forty- 
four or forty-five palms (near eleven metres) 
long ; and has thirty-eight folds, or seventy-six 
pages. It is a ritual and astrological almanack, 
which, from the distribution of the simple hiero- 
' glyphics of the days, and that of the groups of 
mythological figures, resembles altogether the 
Codex Vaticanus, a page of which is given in the 
thirteenth plate. 
The manuscript of Veletri appears to have 
belonged to the family of Giustiniani. We 
know not by what unlucky chance it fell into 
the hands of the domestics of that house, who, 
ignorant of the value of such a collection of 
