Audio guide:
The Codex Cospi was brought to Bologna by the Dominican missionary Domingo de Betanzos, who, on March 3, 1533, met with Pope Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici) and offered him a rich gift of Mesoamerican artifacts, including featherwork, mosaics and painted manuscripts.
Such objects would have served as tangible proof of the "idolatry" that the missionaries were trying to eradicate, but also - due to their technical quality - of the fact that the indigenous people were endowed with ingenuity, rationality and humanity, and thus suitable for conversion to Christianity.
Several painted manuscripts remained in Bologna after the Pope's departure. In the 16th century, some of them were kept in the libraries of Leandro Alberti, Giovanni Achillino and the Paleotti family. Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify the Codex Cospi among them with certainty.