The Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales, a document held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 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.

[5] 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.

[7] Furthermore, the mapping of settlements as can be seen in the Codex Canadensis, and cartography in general, played an important role in the imperial endeavours of European powers in this period.

In that sense, the maps in the Codex can be seen as part of the wider context of cartography as a colonial tool, a way of asserting control over certain spaces.

[11] The captions describe the native peoples as sauvages or barbares, implying the subordination of these communities to the arrival of Europeans in the New World.

Art historian Francois-Marc Gagnon concluded that the images were likely not copied from books, but that it is impossible to determine whether or not the drawings were produced in Canada.

Canadian plants ended up in these gardens in France, the white cedar grown in the Jardin des Tuileries, a drawing of which can be found in the Codex.

[16] These connections make it possible that Nicolas produced his drawings both during his expeditions in Canada as well as in France, inspired by plants cultivated in French gardens.

In a pre-Linnaean scientific world, Nicolas used Aristotelian explanatory framework to relate his accumulating observations about plants to the authority of religion-tinged ancient knowledge.

[18] Additionally, there does not appear to be any explicit criteria for the classification of the plants in the Codex, but it can be deduced that the author ordered them by size, starting from smaller herbs, to fruits and then trees.

[19] These illustrations include that of game birds, owls, and pigeons to name a few, with short and concise visual descriptions alongside the hand drawings.

[15] Other wildlife is also incorporated into this large volume, such as reptiles and small insects, though they do not take precedence in comparison to the first three types of species previously mentioned.