{"id":1326,"date":"2026-10-29T10:09:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/aztec-tipex\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T17:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:42:39","slug":"aztec-tipex","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/aztec-tipex\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec Tipp-Ex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scientific analysis of Mesoamerican manuscripts has been limited to date, due to the scarcity of surviving codices after the Spanish conquest in the mid-16<sup>th<\/sup> century. <a href=\"https:\/\/cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk\/view\/MS-BSS-00375\/1\">BFBS MS 375<\/a>, held at Cambridge University Library, contains a translation of the New Testament gospels and epistles from Latin into Nahuatl, an indigenous Mexican language. Visual examination of the codex, carried out by Mumby Fellow Dr Joshua Fitzgerald, revealed widespread white-paint corrections, a practice used in Mesoamerican manuscripts before European contact, now also documented in about two dozen other 16<sup>th<\/sup> century Colonial Mexican manuscripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Non-invasive approaches (microscopy, FORS, XRF, OCT) were then used by the project team to analyse the materials used in the production of the manuscript, focusing on the correction paint, red pigments, and brown inks. Two white substances were identified: gypsum and a silicate compound. The red pigment contains vermilion, often mixed with a red organic dye, probably cochineal. At least thirteen scribal hands were identified, with the text written in iron-gall ink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings were compared with historical sources written in the Nahuatl language and contextualized within existing scientific literature. This interdisciplinary study of MS 375 offers new insights into Mesoamerican manuscript production, which is currently an underexplored field, while highlighting the need for broader research into provenance, material availability, technologies and the geographical extent of their spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The results of this investigation are currently being prepared for publication in the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC) and in Quaerendo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientific analysis of Mesoamerican manuscripts has been limited to date, due to the scarcity of surviving codices after the Spanish conquest in the mid-16th century. BFBS MS 375, held at Cambridge University Library, contains a translation of the New Testament gospels and epistles from Latin into Nahuatl, an indigenous Mexican language. Visual examination of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1326","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1382,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1326\/revisions\/1382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/hiddeninplainsight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}