Note 903 — Chapter III

Notice sur une collection d’antiquités Mexicaines, being an extract from a Mémoire sur la peinture didactique et l’Écriture figurative des Anciens Mexicains (Paris, 1851; again, 1859-1861). Cf. papers in Revue Américaine et Orientale, 1st ser., iii., iv., and v. Aubin says that Humboldt found that part of the Boturini collection which had been given over to the Mexican archivists diminished by seven eighths. He also shows how Ternaux-Compans (Crauatés Horribles, p. 275-289), Rafael Isidro Gondra (in Veytia, Hist. Ant. de Mex., 1836, i. 49), and Bustamante have related the long contentions over the disposition of these relics, and how the Academy of History at Madrid had even secured the suppression of a similar academy among the antiquaries in Mexico, which had been formed to develop the study of their antiquities. It was as a sort of peace-offering that the Spanish king now caused Veytia to be empowered to proceed with the work which Boturini had begun. This allayed the irritation for a while, but on Veytia’s death (1769) it broke out again, when Gama was given possession of the collection, which he further increased. It was at Gama’s death sold at auction, when Humboldt bought the specimens which are now in Berlin, and Waldeck secured others which he took to Europe. It was from Waldeck that Aubin acquired the Boturini part of his collection. The rest of the collection remained in Mexico, and in the main makes a part at present of the Museo Nacional. But Aubin is a doubtful witness.