The Boxer Codex

Professor Charles R. Boxer purchased this manuscript volume in 1947 from the sale of books and manuscripts from Lord Ilchester's library at Holland House. It dates from the late sixteenth century and contains about 270 pages of text, written probably by a Spanish and possibly by a Filipino clerk, and drawn from a variety of sources. There are also seventy-five colored drawings of the inhabitants of China, the Philippines, Java, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, and Siam; eighty-eight smaller drawings of birds and fantastic animals; and a double-fold drawing depicting a Spanish ship off one of the Ladrone islands surrounded by the small canoes of the natives of the island. The text of the volume consists of contemporary accounts describing these places, their people and customs, and the European contact with them. (From: Rebecca Cape and Stephen Cape, The Friends of the Lilly Library Newsletter 23 (Fall 1994).) A full resolution downloadable version is available here courtesy of the Lilly Library, Indiana. Download link

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