Page 546 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Count Zani himself had donated, after 1665 but
before 1677, to the adjacent sixteenth-century
museum left to the city of Bologna by the Bolo-
gnese protomedico Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605)
(see Laurencich-Minelli 1983 and Laurencich-
Minelli and Filipetti 1983).
In 1680 the codex was again listed simply as a
"book from Mexico" in the Inventario semplice
di tutte le materie descritte che si trovano nel
Museo Cospiano (Summary inventory of all the
described materials found in the Cospi Museum),
the slender anonymous inventory probably pub-
lished to establish officially the number of objects
that the Marquis Fernando Cospi had donated to
the city of Bologna along with his museum (Bo-
logna 1680). In 1742 the Aldrovandi and Cospi
collections were transferred from the Palazzo
Pubblico to the Istituto delle Scienze, and on 4
August of that year the Cospi museum was depos-
ited temporarily in the house of a descendant of
Marquis Fernando, the Marquis Girolamo Cospi,
so that he could choose the materials to send to
the science institute (Bologna 1743; Laurencich-
Minelli 1983,190; Laurencich-Minelli and
Filipetti 1981).
On 6 June 1743 the book from Mexico, along
with other objects from the Museo Cospiano,
entered the Room of Antiquities of the Istituto
delle Scienze (Laurencich-Minelli 1982, 190). In
1803 the library and entire institute became a part
of the University of Bologna. The codex remained
in the library known today as the University
Library (Schiassi 1814).
One can speculate as to how it may have
come into the possession of Count Valerio Zani,
who was a man of considerable learning and a
collector who was a generous benefactor of public
museums. He gave to the Museo Cospiano a
series of medals with the effigies of characters
from the classical world as well as the Codex
Cospi, and at about the same time donated to the
Aldrovandi Museum the Aztec atlatl (Legati
Museo Cospiano, eight years after the collection definitive catalogue, compiled in 1677, he 1677,192) that is now in the Museo Etnografico
had been transferred from Palazzo Cospi to the described it precisely as a book from Mexico and L. Pigorini in Rome (inv. no. 4212), as are all
Palazzo Pubblico. It had been set up there in prep- noted that it was kept in a square box with a among the best American pieces from the Aldro-
aration for its formal donation to the city of crystal cover that has since been lost. vandi and Cospi collections.
Bologna, which took place in 1672. On 24 June Legati (1677, 191-192), furthermore, gave the Count Zani was a member of the Accademia
1660 the Marquis Fernando, in a "request" to the first accurate description of the codex and sup- Bolognese dei Gelati, of which he was prince
Bolognese senate, laid the foundation for the plied measurements, in Bolognese feet, of the in 1670-1671, and of which Cospi too had been
donation and promised also to have a "printed codex when fully opened. However, he did not prince. Zani was in contact with the great
Inventory with identifying marks with many seem to realize that leather had been used as a travelers of his epoch, and under the pseudonym
illustrations and eruditions..." drawn up ground for the writing: he called the support of Aurelio degli Anzi wrote // Genio Vagante (the
(Laurencich-Minelli 1982). The two catalogues, "paper" and compared its thickness to the card- wandering genius) (Parma, 1691-1693), a work
prepared in 1667 and 1677 following Marquis Fer- board used by booksellers. He did affirm correctly in four volumes on the voyages and voyagers of
nando's request by Dr. Lorenzo Legati, professor that the surface was covered with a chalky paint, the time. It may be that the Codex Cospi came
of Greek at the University of Bologna, give the which, by making it smooth, rendered it suitable into the possession of Count Zani from one of the
most detailed information on the codex. for writing. With this observation he anticipated many travelers with whom he came into contact in
Lorenzo Legati may have been the first scholar by four centuries the results of the examination the course of his writing. However, we should not
to have recognized the American origin of the of the surface of the codex with an electron completely reject the idea that his uncle Costanzo
codex. In the 1667 catalogue he listed it in the microscope (Gasparotto and Valdre in Laurencich- Zani, bishop of Imola, through the international
chapter entitled "Miscellaneous" as "book... Minelli 1991). Legati also described the writing ties that the Church of Rome continued to protect
from India,""India" meaning at that time both the in the codex, relating it to other hieroglyphics even after the Council of Trent, could have been
West Indies and the East Indies. In the more including those incised on the Mexican atlatl that the intermediary. L.L.-M. and M.D.C.

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