Histoire Naturelle des Indes
114 of 122
Accession number: MA 3900
Credit: The Morgan Library & Museum. Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983.
Title: Histoire Naturelle des Indes [supplied on an 18th century title page]
Contents: 199 images of West Indian plants, animals and human life, with accompanying manuscript captions written in late sixteenth-century French.
Medium: Most of the illustrations consist of a black chalk underdrawing and a combination of pen and brown ink with watercolor; on some images selected areas have also been glazed with a gum.
Dimensions: Binding: 30 x 21 cm; individual leaves: 29.3 x 19.7 cm.
Binding: Bound or rebound in brown leather in the late 18th century.
Pagination: Penciled folio numbers (1–125) in lower right corner of each page were added by The Morgan Library & Museum. Folios 92v–93, 93v–94, and 95v–96 are fold-out leaves.
Histoire Naturelle des Indes
Come Les Messagers Yndiens Vont Porter Lettres Par Le Pais (How the Indian Messengers Carry Letters All Over the Country)
The Indian messengers carry letters far into the country where the Spaniards cannot go on foot. These travelers are given partridges and other game-birds as presents for the Governors to whom packets of letters are sent from the fleet of ships arriving in the Indies to keep them informed. These letters are carried on a stick the end of which is split, and which they hold in their hand. By this means, they pass rivers (swimming across) without wetting the letters. They also have
Histoire Naturelle des Indes
Illustrated manuscript, ca. 1586
Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983; MA 3900 (fol. 116v–117)
