Codex canadensis
| Codex canadensis | |
|---|---|
| Gilcrease Museum | |
| Date | Circa 1700 |
| Language(s) | French |
| Author(s) | Louis Nicolas |
| Size | 79 pages |
| Previously kept | Librairie Georges Andrieux |
| Discovered | 1934 |
| Other | This work is thought to be a book of illustrations to accompany another manuscript, the Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales |
Codex canadensis is a handwritten and hand-drawn document from circa 1700 that depicts the wildlife and native peoples of Canada. It contains 180 drawings of First Nations' people, plants, mammals, birds and fish of the New World. As the manuscript was neither signed nor dated, many attributed its writing to Bécart de Granville. It is currently kept at the Gilcrease Museum.
Scholars have more recently discovered that the author was probably Louis Nicolas, a French Jesuit. The Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales, a document recently discovered at the National Library of Paris, is speculated to have also been written by Nicolas and provides an in depth description of the animals, fish and plants of Canada, which are all depicted in the Codex Canadensis. The author of the Histoire Naturelle also mentions that the descriptions of his observations are accompanied by illustrations: “…toute sorte de bons poissons, qu’on ne voit pas dans nôtre Europe, dont je vous donneray a la fin de mon Histoire naturelle, les noms, les figures, et les portraits…”. The author of the latter document signed his work M.L.N.P, which recalls the initials of the Grammaire Algonquine 's author, Louis Nicolas. Furthermore, in the Grammaire’s preface, the author specifies that he has placed at the end of his book an extra section on the history of the country: "...On a mis à la fin de cette grammaire un petit supplément de l’histoire du pays...". The Codex Canadensis and Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales could easily be the supplement Louis Nicolas refers too. Indeed, the similarities between the Codex Canadensis, the Histoire Naturelle and the Grammaire Algonquine make it reasonable to believe that all three documents were written by the same man, Louis Nicolas, Priest and Missionary.
Louis Nicolas was born on August 15th 1634 in Aubenas, a commune in the Ardèche region of France. At the age of twenty, he joined the Society of Jesus, a male congregation of the Catholic Church. In 1664, he arrived in Canada, where his order was sent to convert the Aboriginal peoples. As he travelled from the western end of Lake Superior to Sept-Îles, and from Trois-Rivières to the South of Lake Ontario, Louis Nicolas’ interest in Aboriginal languages and culture increased. Nonetheless, according to the Relations Jésuites, Nicolas did not always behave accordingly towards the native peoples. In fact, in a memoir by Antoine Alet, secretary to Sulpician superior M. de Queylus, the Jesuit was “described as a quick tempered and rather vain man.”Moreover, his congregation was not pleased with him as he attempted to tame two bear cubs at the Jesuits' residence in Sillery, in the hope of impressing the King. In 1675, Louis Nicolas left Canada and returned to France. As nothing more was heard of him after his departure, the year of his death is unknown.
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