acing through
transparent substances. He visited the European libraries, very probably
even at that time under orders from Lord Kingsborough, to copy scattered
manuscripts and pictures from Mexico or seemingly from Mexico.

"Now there arises the question, all important for interpretation, In
which shape did the manuscript lie before Aglio? Was it a strip only 3.5
meters in length or did it consist of several pieces?

"To render clear the answer which we proceed to give, it is first
necessary to remark that of the 39 leaves of the codex 35 are written on
both sides and 4 on one side only, so that we can speak only of 74 pages
of manuscript, not of 78. These 74 pages we shall in the following always
designate by the numbers which they bear in Lord Kingsborough, and it is
advisable to abide by these numbers, for the sake of avoiding all error,
until the manuscript can be read with perfect certainty; the 4 empty
pages I shall designate with 0 when there is need of mentioning them
expressly.

"Furthermore it is necessary to state which of these pages so numbered
belong together in such way that they are the front and back of the same
leaf. This condition is as follows: One leaf is formed of pages 1 45, 2
44, 3 43, 4 42, 5 41, 6 40, 7 39, 8 38, 9 37, 10 36, 11 35, 12 34, 13 33,
14 32, 15 31, 16 30, 17 29, 18 0, 19 0, 20 0, 21 28, 22 27, 23 26, 24 25,
46 74, 47 73, 48 72, 49 71, 50 70, 51 69, 52 68, 53 67, 54 66, 55 65, 56
64, 57 63, 58 62, 59 61, 60 0. [That is to say, each pair of this series
forms one leaf, one page on one side and the other on the reverse side of
the leaf.]

"But now we are justified in the assumption, which at least is very
probable, that neither did Aglio change arbitrarily the order of the
original, nor Lord Kingsborough the order of Aglio. Consequently Aglio
must already have had the manuscript before him in two pieces, be it that
the thin pellicles by which the single leaves are connected were loosened
in one place or that the whole was separated only then in order not to be
obliged to manipulate the whole unwieldy strip in the operation of
copying. A third possibility, to which we shall presently return, is that
of assuming two separate pieces from the beginning; in this case Goetze
and the others must be supposed to have seen it in this condition, but to
have omitted the mention of the circumstance, believing that the original
unity had been destroyed by tearing.

"Of the two pieces one must ha