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Visual arts: Canadian history through 17th-century eyes from The Montreal Gazette
What is something called the Codex Canadensis doing in a museum in Tulsa, Okla.?
It doesn’t really matter, because this 17th-century illustrated natural history of eastern North America – centred on present-day Quebec – is now available in a handsome book that includes the writings of a Jesuit priest who was apparently more interested in observing his wondrous surroundings than in saving souls.
The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas (The Natural History of the New World) contains the priest’s documentation of wildlife and aboriginal culture, along with 88 pages of colour illustrations that are attributed to him. Réal Ouellet of Université Laval modernized the original French text, and Nancy Senior of the University of Saskatchewan translated it into English. The introduction by art historian François-Marc Gagnon puts Nicolas’s text and the images into the context of a 17th-century priest, steeped in the classics, who lived among the Indians of 15 different nations over a period of more than 10 years.
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The Codex Canadensis, with Gagnon’s clear and witty commentary, could be a treasured gift for an art lover, nature lover – or tattoo artist.
Large-format books will make excellent gifts at Christmas from StarPhoenix
To begin this year's list, let's go local, in a sense, and start with a large tome entitled The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas (McGill-Queen's UP; $65), edited and with an introduction by Francois-Marc Gagnon, translation by Nancy Senior, and modernization by Real Ouellet. When local naturalist Stuart Houston introduced Senior at a recent book launch, he indicated that you get eight pounds of book for the money – and it's money well spent. Reproduced here are not only Nicolas's idiosyncratic drawings of wildlife in what was then the New World, but his illuminating rambles on animals, birds, fish and plants, most of which he tasted, and many of which he declared delicious. And don't be frightened by the word codex it means a book with pages.
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