The Serpent and Eagle Backlist

The New World was a cornucopia of wonders tumbling out to the Old World’s astonishment: tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, corn: and last, but not least, books. We hear tell of a Toltec’s surprise at the sight of the new arrivals who appeared to be reading. Upon further inquiry, the Toltec learned that the Spaniards had in fact brought trunkfuls of bound books. He asked to see one up close, but when he opened it, he was baffled: the pages were chock full of meaningless shapes! The Toltec searched in vain for the familiar silhouettes of humans or animals. He knew pictographs and was familiar with communicating through emblems of living creatures or physical objects; the pages before him held only black marks, notations of sounds and syllables. Europeans were equally baffled by what looked like picture books. They thought them childish and dull, less appealing than the dazzlingly colorful feather swatters brought back to Europe. Useless, then, these pictograph books – strange and perhaps wicked. Without market value and theologically dangerous to behold, they were soon lost or destroyed. One of the few surviving Aztec manuscripts is held at the University of Bologna: the Codex Cospi.