A Spaniard originally from Italy, the polymath Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci (1702-1753), known as Boturini, traveled to New Spain in 1736. Becoming fascinated by the Mesoamerican cultures of the New World, he collected and copied native writings--and learned Nahuatl, the language in which most of these documents were written. Boturini's incomparable collection--confiscated, neglected, and dispersed after the Spanish crown condemned his intellectual...