Colouring materials of pre-Columbian codices: non-invasive in situ spectroscopic analysis of the Codex Cospi

Ancient Mesoamerican codices represent the religious and historical legacy of the pre-Columbian people, they were produced to record the historical and religious matters. Codex Cospi, a divinatory book, is one of the fifteen extant pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican books which survived the destruction of the Spanish conquest. Thanks to the use of a set of portable non-invasive analytical techniques it was possible to study the Codex Cospi revealing valuable information on its constituting materials (dyes, pigments and substrates). The analytical results were compared with historical references contained in early colonial Mexican documents showing interesting parallels and providing hints for probable identification of colouring materials. (C)2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.