Don't Judge a Book by its Cover?

Book covers, like the quality of paper in the book, reflect the cost of the book as well as information about its owners or primary users. This book has a limp vellum cover, a fine parchment cover made of animal skin typically that of a calf, kid, or lamb. This choice to bind the book in leather may reflect the importance of the official documents in this book or that this book was meant for practical purposes and not for show. Other aspects of the cover teach us other things too.

The cover of this book has no images, making it cheaper than other leather bound books with intricate designs. It is also a bit more flexible and durable than other more expensive and higher quality leather coverings used in 16th/18th century Mexico.
At one point words written on the spine of this book. Though most of it is now faded, we can still pick out a red number 31. This number hints that this book of bound documents was likely part of a larger group. When all stored on a shelf, they were kept in numerical order to make finding and keeping them organized easier. This also means there are possibly other books like this out there.
Some flexible animal skin covers are prone to bowing. To solve this issue, bookbinders often created book ties on the ends of the covers to prevent them from bowing and keeping them closed.

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