The Search for the Codex Cardona

by Arnold Bauer

Book Overview

In The Search for the Codex Cardona, Arnold J. Bauer tells the story of his experiences on the trail of a cultural treasure, a Mexican "painted book" that first came into public view at Sotheby's auction house in London in 1982, nearly four hundred years after it was presumably made by Mexican artists and scribes. On folios of amate paper, the Codex includes two oversized maps and 300 painted illustrations accompanied by text in sixteenth-century...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822346141
• ISBN13: 9780822346142
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

enthralling

This true story reads like the very best mystery fiction. Bauer is a stunning writer, with the subtlest characterizations of the people who show up in his quest and a sense of timing that is delicious. The book has an exquisite ending. It is an international romp, suspenseful and colorful, and in another sense, a travelogue through Mexico, its upper crust, its lower depths. A page turner. Priscilla High

Pretty Good Book

Very enjoyable read. Do be careful of the "dream" scene in Chapter 17. Though the author and his friend have lapsed into fantasies about the outcome before, there was always a warning of sorts. Chapter 17 purports to have actually have found The Cordona. Only after reading what one thinks is fact does the author inform us -oops another fantasy! If you start skimming this book you will miss this. This is not a suitable device for non-fiction---perhaps just filler.

I Wish All Academics Wrote This Well . . .

Professor Bauer's book is one of the most fascinating historical works I've read recently. When I first heard Dr. Bauer on NPR's THE STORY, I knew THE SEARCH FOR THE CODEX CARDONA would be a book I couldn't get my hands on fast enough. Finally published by Duke UP, I received my copy this week after having placed my order a couple months ago. Reading Bauer's account makes me feel like I'm back in Dr. Ott's Latin American History course at UNA. I recommend enthusiastically THE SEARCH FOR THE CODEX CARDONA. The book is a smart mixture of history, mystery, and the rare book trade. Additionally, it's the sole existing work on the Cardona -- a unique treatment of the subject!