++++++++++++++++++++
http://pages.prodigy.com/GBonline/awaztec.html
Native Paper CodicesBorbonicus Boturini
European Paper ManuscriptsMendoza FlorentinoTelleriano-Remensis Vaticanus A Magliabecchiano Group
Other Documents
Other Notes
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca
VIEW THIS PAGE WITHOUT FRAMESUpdated 9 September 1999
The variety of documents we encounter in the category of "Aztec Writing" includes just a couple of native paper screenfolds, and a great number of manuscripts written after the conquest by native scribes and informants. This page is a list of what I would consider to be key documents. (If you have any suggestions as to what else might be included, send me an email.)
The word Aztec was invented by a 19th century writer; perhaps the word was used to sanitize or distance the historical people from their progeny. The people encountered by Cortez were known as the Mexica, leaders of the Triple Alliance. They were the most powerful of many ethnic groups that made the valley of Mexico their home. We know a great deal about them from the early ethnographic works of Sahagun and other Spanish priests.
There are several documents that have spanish commentary and frequently nahuatl glosses accompanying picture writing used by the natives. There are many other documents to explore written purely in Nahuatl or other Uto-Aztecan languages using european characters, but those will have to wait to be explored on another page.
What follows herein is a loose aggregation of information about surviving examples of Aztec writing that follow a pre-conquest pictorial tradition, dating primarily from the 16th century.
Photo CreditsThe above image has been scanned from the book Codex Mendoza : Aztec Manuscript, edited with commentaries by Kurt Ross, copyright 1978 / 1984 Productions Liber,S.A., Fribourg, Switzerland.(Used without permission)The images below from the Mendoza, Telleriano-Remensis & Ixtlilxochitlcome to us from a very useful site called Aztec Codices at Rice University.Thanks to Rice University and SMC for putting these images on the web.(Unfortunately, I've had considerably difficulty accessing this site lately.)They were scanned from Painting the Conquest : the Mexican Indiansand the European Renaissance by Serge Gruzinski, copyright 1992 Flammarion, Paris, France.(Also used without permission)Other images are taken from their corresponding hyperlinks,with the exception of my original transparent GIFs.All rights reserved; not to be used for commercial purposes. Both of the books are highly recommended,but especially Painting the Conquest !
Washington State University href="http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/"
target="_top">Virtual Campusfor the image of href="http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/culture/glossary/mythology-image.html"
target="_top"> Tezcatlipoca & Quetzalcoatl from
the Codex Borbonicus.-->
Native Paper Codices
Borbonicus
Current location - Biblioteque Nationale Paris
Native paper screenfold painted on one side(with Spanish glosses).
36 leaves.
The original publication of 1898/1899 by Francisco del Paso y Troncoso with (outdated) accompanying text by E.T.Hamy has been reprinted since 1979 by Siglo XXI Editores with the original facsimile drawing.
There was a photographic facsimile edition with commentary by Karl Nowotny, published by Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt, Graz, Austria 1974 (your first choice if you read German).
A like facsimile accompanies the latest edition in the Codices Mexicanos series from Fondo Cultura Economica with a superb commentary, and continues to reflect their dedication to first class scholarship.
Boturini(also known as the
Peregrination Painting)
Amatl paper screenfold painted on one side.
21 and 1/2 leaves.
.
Early pictorial chronicle (1168-1355) portraying travels of the Tenochca-Mexica from Aztlan to Chapultepec, in native or slightly acculturated style. (HMAI)
Published in Kingsborough Antiquities of Mexico Volume I.
European Paper Manuscripts
Mendoza
Current location - Bodleian LibraryOxford, England
European paper.71 numbered leaves plus title leaf.32.7 by 22.9 cm.
Published in Kingsborough Antiquities of Mexico Volume I; transcript of Spanish text published in Volume V.
Edited & translated by James Cooper Clark 1938 London, Waterlow & Sons. With listing, etymology, and identification of 612 place glyphs, index, and glossary. The original printing of the 1938 color facsimile reproduction and English translation was partially destroyed when the warehouse containing inventory copies was damaged by fire.
Florentino
Current location - Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
European paperThree volumes: 345 / 372 / 493 leaves.
This was a version of the book that was edited and passed down as the "Historia General de las cosas de Nueva Espana" by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún.
Color Facsimile reproduction, 3 Vols. Mexico City, Archivo General de la Nacion, 1979.
Black and White Facsimile Edition and English translation of Nahuatl by Dibble & Anderson, 1950-69 (twelve volumes), published by University of Utah Press, available from Amazon.
A Nahuatl/English Florentine Codex Vocabulary compiledby R. Joe Campbell of Indiana University is available online.
The above graphic comes to us from the Mexican Crayfish Pagewhich includes an article on Crayfish in the Codex Florentino
The following two have been called the Huitzilopotchtli Group.
Telleriano-Remensis
Current location - Biblioteque Nationale Paris
European paper codex.50 leaves 32 by 22 cm.Mexican manuscript of the office of the Ar. M. le Tellier, Archbishop of Rheims, now in the Biblioteque Nationale (MS Mex. 385) E.T. Hamy Paris 1899. Also published in Kingsborough Antiquities of Mexico Volume I; transcript of Spanish text published in Volume V.
The latest scholarship and a facsimile of the document can be found in the book Codex Telleriano-Remensis : Ritual, Divination, and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript by Eloise Quinones Keber.
You are encouraged to visit your local bookseller and order a copyof the Codex Telleriano-Remensis by Eloise Quinones KeberYou can also place an order online at Amazon.Comwhere you can peruse the Table of Contents.
Vaticanus A (aka Codex Rios)
Current location - Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
European paper codex.101 leaves. 46 by 29 cm.
Vatican mexican manuscript #3738. Facsimile published by Duc de Loubot with the permission of the Vatican Library, Rome, 1900. Also published in Kingsborough Antiquities of Mexico Volume II; transcript of Italian text published in Volume V.
Magliabecchiano Group
Magliabecchiano
Current location - Biblioteca Nationale Centrale, Florence
European paper codex.92 leaves. 15.5 by 21.5 cm.
Folio facsimile edition, 94 pages, published in 1903 by Zelia Nuttall. Reprinted with corrections and commentary in a slipcase edition accompanying The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans : The Codex Magliabecchiano and the Lost Prototype of the Magliabecchiano Group by Elizabeth H. Boone, 1983, University of California, Berkeley (now out of print).
The Magliabecchiano is considered to be derivative of a hypothetical lost prototype called "Libro de Figuras". Other cited cognates include:
Codice del Museo de America (Codex Tudela)
Codex Ixtlilxochitl (Part 1)
Left: Folio 107R Right: Folio 105R Below: Folio 106R
Nezahualcoyotl, Lord of Texcoco
Other documents
Not quite sure where to put these:
Aubin (Codex de 1576)
European paper codex (Spanish / Nahuatl).81 leaves . 15 by 11 cm.
First edition hand-colored lithograph circa 1849-1851 by Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin. Facsimile reproduction, edited and translated by Charles E. Dibble Madrid 1963.
Badianus Manuscript
European paper codex (Nahuatl / Latin). 63 folios, painted on both sides.Aztec herbal. Representations of 184 native plants and trees.
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca
Matricula De Tributos
Plano en Papel de Maguey Amatl paper. 238 by 168 cm.
Codex Xicotepec(unknown material) 28 screenfold pages, 10" x 7"
"Discovered by anthropologists in 1992 in the Nahua and Totonac region of Huauchinango-Xicotepec, the Xicotepec Codex is available now for the first time in facimile form. Covering the period 1431 thru 1533, this post-Columbian codex is an enlightening pictorial history of the people of Texcoco and the central and southern valley of Mexico."
Other Notes
A web site based on Carlos Fuente's Buried Mirror project isnow back online with pages specific to Post-Conquest Nahua Codicesand a fine presentation on the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca. There are also chapters from Sahagún's Book 6 and Book 12 from "Historia General de las cosas de Nueva Espana", and a Mexica Perigrination page, all of which should be of great interest to readers of this page. I'm sure you'll enjoy this site at the University of Michigan.
Thanks to this institution for makingthese resources available on the Web.
An exciting presentation of the University of Texasat Austin - Benson Library Relaciones Geográficas Collection showcases their manuscripts with dates ranging from 1578 to 1586. Kudos to this institution for making these resources available online - I hope more libraries follow their lead and bring important historical materials like these to light via the World Wide Web.
(Special thanks to Kathy Hummel forpointing my browser in this direction.)
For a lot more information on the Aztecs and Mexico in general,visit the Aztecs History Page for students, social studiesteachers, and anyone interested in the Aztecs.
For more Web resources related to Aztec Writing, visitthe Nahuatl Home Page at the University of Montana. Also, check out my pages on the Borgia Codex Group.
Navigate the GBonline web pages: [ Ancient Writing Aztec Borgia Group Maya Mixtec ] VIEW CURRENT PAGE WITHOUT FRAMES
[ Exploring Mesoamerica GB Info Search Engines Websters ]
Mail to: GBonline@prodigy.net
1995-99 - GBonline [] Last Update: 9 September 1999Revised intermittently
+++++++++++++++
Related Blogs:
Humane-Rights-Agenda Blog
++++++++++
Native Resistance Blog!
++++++++++
De Todos Para Todos
++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment