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All of the above-mentioned materials have been detected in the Borgia Group codices, the most comparatively relevant group of pre-Hispanic manuscripts, since we unfortunately lack any secure pre-colonial codex from the Basin of Mexico (Miliani et al. 2012; Domenici et al. 2014; 2018; 2017; Buti et al. 2018). A scientific analysis of the colors used in the Matrícula de Tributos, whose dating is debated, would obviously be of great comparative interest in order to ascertain its degree of material affinity with the Codex Mendoza. It is important to note that these same materials were also used to paint the Codex Borbonicus, the early colonial manuscript from the Basin of Mexico whose palette does not show any clear evidence of innovative colonial technological traits (Pottier et al. 2019).

Apart from these traditional materials, the Codex Mendoza also contains some colors that deserve a more detailed discussion, since their status as “traditional” or “innovative” is controversial. The first of these colors is arsenic trisulphide (orpiment), which was detected only in Parts 1 and 2 and also as a component of green colors. Given the limited number of measured points, we would be extremely cautious in excluding the possibility that it was also used in Part 3. We have previously detected this yellow inorganic color on codices Laud, Fejérváry-Mayer, Cospi verso, and Nuttall recto, thus undoubtedly demonstrating its usage in pre-colonial codex painting (Miliani et al. 2012; Domenici et al. 2014; 2018; 2017; Buti et al. 2018). Nevertheless, its usage seems to have been fairly restricted, both spatially and chronologically. On one hand, codices Laud, Fejérváry-Mayer, and Cospi verso (which share some very specific and distinctive stylistic and thematic traits) were arguably painted in the same region, probably the Tehuacan area (Álvarez Icaza Longoria 2014). Although the Codex Nuttall was arguably painted in the Tilantongo area of the Mixtec region, it shows both technological and stylistic similarities with the abovementioned codices, perhaps reflecting pre-colonial interaction across the current Oaxaca-Puebla border. On the other hand, the fact that orpiment appears only on the later-painted sides of both codices Cospi and Nuttall suggests that its introduction onto the painters’ palette was a relatively late phenomenon in pre-Hispanic times. Due to the lack of pre-colonial manuscripts from the Basin of Mexico, we do not know if orpiment was used by local painters before the conquest. However, the absence of orpiment on codices Borgia, Cospi recto, and Vaticanus B as well as on the early colonial Codex Borbonicus seems to suggest that it may not have been used before this period. If this hypothesis is correct, the usage of orpiment on Codex Mendoza should be interpreted as a colonial innovation and perhaps as an early manifestation of a process of technological transformation which led to the quite common usage of orpiment in post-1550 colonial manuscripts from the Basin of Mexico, such as Codex De la Cruz-Badianus, the Beinecke Map, and Codex Florentinus (Newman and Derrick 2012; Giorgi, Chelazzi, and Magaloni Kerpel 2014; Zetina et al. 2011).