The Colors On The Boxer Codex

Summary

Created in early Spanish Manila, the Boxer Codex inherited the codices making tradition from the Americas. The illustrations of the Boxer Codex offer some of the earliest images of people living in the Philippine archipelago and its Asian neighbors during the late sixteenth century. This study focuses on the visuality and materiality of the codex illustrations and aims to investigate the nature of the pigments and dyes used in these images. Scientific analysis was conducted with two non-invasive technologies: portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS). Preliminary results show that the colourants are based on a variety of organic and inorganic materials and provide some insight on the circulation of a kind of material in the early modern Pacific world that is rarely found and studied in archaeological contexts.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Before the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Pacific Coast Ports in the Americas, and Beyond   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 301