Codex Cospi
Encyclopedia
The Codex Cospi is a pre-Columbian
Mesoamerican pictorial manuscript, included in the Borgia Group
. It is currently located in the library of the University of Bologna
.
Like the Codex Borgia
, the Codex Cospi is believed to derive from the Puebla-Tlaxcala region. If the Codex Borgia is specifically from the Tehuacan valley (in Puebla), then the Codex Cospi may, in contrast, be from Tlaxcallan. As Eduard Seler
remarked, the depictions in the Codex Cospi resemble those in "comic books" : this may characterize the political situation (regarded as farcical and comical) wherein Tlaxcallan, although completely encircled by the Aztec empire, was deliberately not incorporated into it in order to exemplify the magnanimity of the Aztec rulers.
The Codex Cospi has many close specific resemblances in content to Codex Borgia, most notably both codices' beginning with a sequence of 104 scenes (Cospi, pp. 1-8 = Borgia, pp. 1-8). Another resemblance is the Codex Cospi god having "two knives as a head":: this is equivalent to double-knife-headed god central to Codex Borgia, p.32.
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
Mesoamerican pictorial manuscript, included in the Borgia Group
Borgia Group
The Borgia Group is the designation given by scholars to a number of mostly pre-Columbian documents from central Mexico, first identified by Eduard Seler. They are distinguished by their religious content, while the pre-Columbian codices of the Mixtec group are principally historical...
. It is currently located in the library of the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
.
Like the Codex Borgia
Codex Borgia
The Codex Borgia is a Mesoamerican ritual and divinatory manuscript. It is generally believed to have been written before the Spanish conquest of Mexico, somewhere within what is now today southern or western Puebla...
, the Codex Cospi is believed to derive from the Puebla-Tlaxcala region. If the Codex Borgia is specifically from the Tehuacan valley (in Puebla), then the Codex Cospi may, in contrast, be from Tlaxcallan. As Eduard Seler
Eduard Seler
Eduard Georg Seler was a prominent German anthropologist, ethnohistorian, linguist, epigrapher, academic and Americanist scholar, who made extensive contributions in these fields towards the study of pre-Columbian era cultures in the Americas...
remarked, the depictions in the Codex Cospi resemble those in "comic books" : this may characterize the political situation (regarded as farcical and comical) wherein Tlaxcallan, although completely encircled by the Aztec empire, was deliberately not incorporated into it in order to exemplify the magnanimity of the Aztec rulers.
The Codex Cospi has many close specific resemblances in content to Codex Borgia, most notably both codices' beginning with a sequence of 104 scenes (Cospi, pp. 1-8 = Borgia, pp. 1-8). Another resemblance is the Codex Cospi god having "two knives as a head":: this is equivalent to double-knife-headed god central to Codex Borgia, p.32.