Non Destructive In Situ Study of Mexican Codices: Methodology and First Results of Materials Analysis for the Colombino and Azoyu Codices

Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of Mexican yellow dyestuff

“…Nevertheless, the identification of yellow pigments by these techniques is often limited to inorganic compounds, such as yellow ochres in codices, [6,7] whereas yellow organic colors are almost impossible to identify. [8][9][10] Problems regarding the detection of yellow colorants include the low concentration of the dye present in the object (due to its high tinting power), its degradation over time, and the similarity of the chemical structure of the different organic molecules that produce yellow hues. The majority of the chromophores are flavonoids, which makes them very difficult to differentiate by fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (a powerful noninvasive and nondestructive tool used in cultural heritage studies [11] ).…”

SANDRA: a portable XRF system for the study of Mexican cultural heritage

“…In fact, there are scarce analyses on codice materials. [42,51] The SANDRA system and other portable equipments were transported to the security areas of the library to carry out the analysis of the most important codices of the Mexican collection. In www.interscience.com/journal/xrs the first stage of research, the Colombino codice and two colonial codices (de la Cruz Badiano, Azoyu) were studied.…”

“…In www.interscience.com/journal/xrs the first stage of research, the Colombino codice and two colonial codices (de la Cruz Badiano, Azoyu) were studied. [51] In this case, we discuss the analysis of one colonial codice.…”

“…Only in the late colonial codices, dyes are replaced by European pigments. [42,51] Further analyses on the codices collection using XRF and other complementary techniques, such as Raman and Mid-FTIR in situ are in progress.…”

Further Insight into Mesoamerican Paint Technology: Unveiling the Colour Palette of the Pre‐Columbian Codex Fejérváry‐Mayer by Means of Non‐invasive Analysis

“…Since no scientific analyses of any kind have been carried out on the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer in the past, the painting materials used in the codex were completely unknown before the noninvasive analyses carried out by the MOLAB European mobile facility Brunetti et al 2016) and reported herein. In the following, the results of such analyses will be presented and discussed on the basis of data deriving from similar scientific analyses-both micro-destructive and non-invasive-previously carried out on other Mesoamerican codices, namely the Codices Becker I (Nowotny and Strebinger 1959), Selden (Dark and Plesters 1959), Colombino (Torres et al 1966;Zetina et al 2011;Zetina Ocaña et al 2014), Nuttall (Higgitt 2008), Cospi Domenici et al 2014), Madrid Domenici et al 2014) and an unnamed Early Classic Maya codex fragment from Uaxactun, Guatemala (Carter and Dobereiner 2016). The comparative effort, which could also be enriched by comparisons with data from historical sources discussed elsewhere Dupey García 2017), is aimed at a first sketching out of the technological relationships that exist among the different codices.…”