Codex Azcatitlan
Encyclopedia
Mexica
The Mexica were a pre-Columbian people of central Mexico.Mexica may also refer to:*Mexica , a board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling*Mexica , a 2005 novel by Norman Spinrad...
from their migration from Aztlán
Aztlán
Aztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
to the Spanish conquest of Mexico
Spanish conquest of Mexico
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés...
and Christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
. The exact date it was written is not known, it is presumed it was written sometime between the mid XVI and XVII Centuries.
Contents
The text consists of pictorialAztec writing
Aztec or Nahuatl writing is a pictographic and ideographic pre-Columbian writing system used in central Mexico by the Nahua peoples. The majority of the Aztec codices were burned either by Aztec tlatoani , or by Spanish clergy following the conquest of Mesoamerica...
Aztec codex
Aztec codices
Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture....
, with pictorial representations and glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
s accompanied by Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
gloss, with Latin characters descriptions, the story told.
It is composed of three parts.
The first deals on an analytical mode the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
history since leaving the legendary Aztlán
Aztlán
Aztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
(a gloss mentions the name of Azcatitlan) in year 1-Pedernal (Flint) (gloss designated as 1168) until the Tenochtitlan founding.
The second part deals with the Aztec Tlatoani
Tlatoani
Tlatoani is the Nahuatl term for the ruler of an altepetl, a pre-Hispanic state. The word literally means "speaker", but may be translated into English as "king". A is a female ruler, or queen regnant....
s history.
The last part, quite diverse, deals with the arrival of the Spanish and the beginnings of the conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Style
The codex contains stylistic innovations such as volume and space suggestion, using color attenuation for this purpose. Remarkably, the drawings depict clothing folds, as well as an empirical perspective as well as composition.Name
Unlike most other Mesoamerican codicesMesoamerican literature
The traditions of indigenous Mesoamerican literature extend back to the oldest-attested forms of early writing in the Mesoamerican region, which date from around the mid-1st millennium BCE. Many of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica are known to have been literate societies, who produced a...
, the name of this codex is not one of its owners, but its contents. Indeed, it is drawn with a Gloss
Gloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....
indicating that the place of departure of the Aztec migration is Azcatitlan (derivative of Aztlan
Aztlán
Aztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
).
Characteristics
It consists of 25 European paper 21 x 28 cm sheets (50 pages), painted on both sides.All pages contain color drawings and are in excellent state of preservation. Six pages of this document are lost and it is known they are missing since ancient times. The document was restored in 1959.
The codex is fastened in the European style.
History
The first document information is in the "Indian Historical Museum" catalogue (1702–1755) and it was owned by Lorenzo Boturini BernaducciLorenzo Boturini Bernaducci
Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci was a historian, antiquary and ethnographer of New Spain, the Spanish Empire's colonial dominions in North America.-Early life:...
. This famous collector personally bought indigenous codices and when he was arrested and subsequently deported Spain, his collection was confiscated.
Subsequently the Codex is mentioned in the 19th century by Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin, who later sold his collection to Eugène Goupil
Eugène Goupil
Charles Eugène Espidon Goupil was a French Mexican philanthropist and collector.In 1889 he bought Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin's collection of 384 Mesoamerican manuscripts. On May 14, 1864, he married Augustine Élie...
. Upon his death, his widow donated the codex to the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
in 1898.
Authors
The authors and the date of preparation of this document are unknown, but several elements show that it is a colonial codex.In fact, the binding method and painting style, mixing indigenous and European artistic conventions, notably by the use of perspectives, suggest that the book is not earlier than the second half of the XVI century.
Michel Graulich considers the glosses are contemporary paintings and note the handwriting of these glosses resembles the style of other works of the last third of the XVI century.
The Codex seems to have been made by at least two painters-scribes (Tlacuiloque) with different styles.
Further reading
- Aztecs
- AztlánAztlánAztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
- MesoamericaMesoamericaMesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
- Mesoamerican codices
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
- NahuaNahuaThe Nahuas are a group of indigenous peoples of Mexico. Their language of Uto-Aztecan affiliation is called Nahuatl and consists of many more dialects and variants, a number of which are mutually unintelligible...
- Aztec codicesAztec codicesAztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture....
- Lorenzo Boturini