Juan de Tovar, born in Mexico of conquistador stock, became a Jesuit missionary. He was fluent in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and became an avid collector of Aztec codices, conferring with natives about their meaning. His studies resulted in a multi-volume work about the history and culture of pre-Hispanic Mexico (ca. 1585). The images on display are copies from Tovar’s original drawings and include depictions of Aztec gods, rulers, and ceremonies of the Pre-Columbian period. The original manuscript is now at the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University.