Codex canadensis

Codex canadensis is the official name of an illustrated book about the native peoples and wildlife in Canada (which then included the upper parts of the Mississippi River system) which was written in or about 1700 by a French missionary priest called Louis Nicolas. It is not clear that Nicolas was the creator. This document, today preserved by the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is handwritten and hand-drawn on parchment in ink and watercolours. The Codex canadensis provides extremely valuable documentation of the people, flora, and fauna of the New World as European explorers were first discovering them.

References

• Codex canadensis at Library and Archives Canada