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Mesoamerican Codices

Mesoamerican codices are manuscripts that present traits of the Mesoamerican indigenous pictoric tradition, either in content, style, or in regards to their symbolic conventions.[1] The unambiguous presence of Mesoamerican writing systems in some of these documents is also an important, but not defining, characteristic, for Mesoamerican codices can comprise pure pictorials, native cartographies with no traces of glyphs on them, or colonial alphabetic texts with indigenous illustrations. Perhaps the best-known examples among such documents are Aztec codices, Maya codices, and Mixtec codices, but other cultures such as the Tlaxcaltec, the Purépecha, the Otomi, the Zapotecs, and the Cuicatecs, are creators of equally relevant manuscripts. The destruction of Mesoamerican civilizations resulted in only about twenty known pre-Columbian codices surviving to modern times. [2]: 8 

Some examples of facsimile versions of Mesoamerican codices

Formats edit

During the 19th century, the word 'codex' became popular to designate any pictorial manuscript in the Mesoamerican tradition. In reality, pre-Columbian manuscripts are, strictly speaking, not codices, since the strict librarian usage of the word denotes manuscript books made of vellum, papyrus and other materials besides paper, that have been sewn on one side.[1] Instead, precolumbian pictorials were made in native, non-codical formats, some of these being the following:[3]

  • Tira A manuscript painted or drawn on a long and more or less narrow strip composed of sheets of animal hide or paper. This is the most important format, for many of the rest derive of it. A well known example is the Codex Boturini.
  • Screenfold A manuscript painted on a tira and folded like a screen in the fashion of an accordion. A classic example is the Codex Borgia.
  • Roll A tira that has been rolled. An example is the Selden Roll.
  • Lienzo A sheet of cloth, sometimes of grand format. The Lienzo de Quauhquechollan is a notable example.

Classification edit

According to Donald Robertson and John B. Glass, the first scholars to propose a comprehensive census of such documents, five categories can be discerned among them.[1] The first is that of traditional pictorials (which we will name "traditional codexes" in this article), comprising numbers 1-599 in their catalog. The second is that of paintings and maps from the Relaciones Geográficas, a set of questionnaires elaborated by the colonial bureaucracy of the Spanish Empire during the reign of Phillip II (numbers 601-699). The third category is that of Techialoyan manuscripts, a number of late colonial manuscripts created during the 17th century with the intention to serve as legal documents for indigenous communities, which display a noticeable similarity in style and format, as well as sharing a regional origin (numbers 701-799). The fourth category is that of pictorial cathecisms, also known as Testerian cathecisms (numbers 801-899). The fifth category is that of falsified pictorials. Finally, the category of nonpictorial texts which describe pictorials is contemplated, but not used, by Robertson and Glass (numbers 1000 and up), but examples of such documents exist too.

Besides this primary classification, these documents can be further classified according to their origin, their region, and subject, Thus, in regards to their origin, manuscripts can be distinguished as pre-Columbian (like those of the Borgia group), those produced under Spanish patronage (the Codex Mendoza being a notable example), native colonial (for example, Codex Xolotl), and mixed colonial (like the Lienzo de Tlaxcala). In regards to their topic, these documents can be classified as dealing with the following topics: ritual-calendrical, historical, genealogical, cartographic, cartographic-historical, economic, ethnographic, and miscellaneous.

These manuscripts can comprise many regions: Western Mexico (mainly Michoacan), Central Mexico (Mexico City and the State of Mexico, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Veracruz), Oaxaca, Southeast Mexico (Chiapas and Yucatan) and Guatemala. Regional schools have been identified: the classic division in the Central Mexican region was proposed by Donald Robertson, who distinguished among them the schools of Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco and Tezcoco.[4]

Traditional Mesoamerican codices edit

 
Codex Borbonicus, a traditional Mesoamerican codex

This category comprises most pre-Columbian and colonial Mesoamerican pictorials, and is by far the best-known and studied. Individual manuscripts in this category are numerous, totalling 434 in Robertson and Glass original census,[1] and their number keeps increasing thanks to the discovery of new native traditional codices in Mexican villages. An example of a recent addition would be the Codex Cuaxicala, a pictorial document from the 16th century currently kept by the homonymous community of Huachinango, Puebla. A list of the most representative manuscripts from this category would be the following:

Within these categories, some sub-groupings of codices that are closely related in subject or that share a common prototype exist. Among the most famous are the following:

  • Borgia group: This well-known group comprises Codex Borgia, Codex Cospi, Codex Féjérvari-Mayer, Codex Laud and Codex Vaticanus B,
  • Huitzilopochtli group: This grouping establishes the relationship between Codex Telleriano Remensis and Rios.
  • Lienzo de Tlaxcala group: This group comprises all versions of the pictorial account of the Spanish Conquest in the point of view of the Tlaxcaltec, collectively known as the Lienzo de Tlaxcala. It is composed by three originals, all unknown nowadays, and 11 copies, many incomplete.
  • Maya screenfolds: The Dresden Codex, Codex Madrid, Codex Paris and the Maya Codex of Mexico
  • Magliabechiano group: This group has been studied in depth by José Batalla Rosado. Pictorials belonging to it are the Codex Tudela, Libro de Figuras, Códice Ritos y Costumbres (lost), Codex Magliabechiano, Codex Ixtlilxochitl I, Codex Veytia and some images from the Décadas of Antonio de Herrera. Non pictorial accounts in this group include: Códice Fiestas, Códice Cabezón and the Chronicle of New Spain of Salazar.
  • Nutall group: Codex Colombino, Codex Bodley, Codex Nuttall, Codex Selden anc Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I.
  • Sahagun drawings: Primeros Memoriales and Florentine Codex.

Paintings from the Relaciones Geográficas edit

 
Map of Metztitlan, from the Relación Geográfica de Metztitlán (1579)

This group comprises all the paintings and illustrations from the Relaciones Geográficas, a series of documents produced as a result of questionnaires distributed to the territories under the jurisdiction of Phillip the Second, King of Spain, during the years 1579–1585. Besides their invaluable ethnohistorical, ethnological and geographical data, the Relaciones often includes a series of paintings and maps, some considered to display elements of the native cartographical tradition.

Techialoyan manuscripts edit

 
The Techialoyan Codex of Cuajimalpa, an example of a Techialoyan manuscript

The Techialoyan manuscripts is a group of indigenous Mexican manuscripts named after the Codex of San Antonio Techialoyan. These documents were produced during the 18th century, and reveal a set of common elements, including the use of amate paper, the presence of Nahuatl alphabetic glosses, their artistic style, their legal purpose and the fact that they were created in a number of villages in and around the State and the valley of Mexico.[1] They were first classified by Robert Barlow.[6] Some of them were produced by local indigenous artists in order to be recognized as legal documents for the colonial Spanish administration, but were deemed as forgeries. A foremost example of this class is the Codex García Granados.

Pictorial cathecisms edit

Pictorial cathecisms, also known as Testerian manuscripts, are documents containing prayers, articles of faith, or any part of the Catholic cathecism, either drawn or written through mnemonic images or ad-hoc hieroglyphs. They are called "Testerian" because they were once taught to be an invention of the Franciscan friar Jacobo de Testera; however, most documents of this tradition are unrelated to Testera, who was not even the first friar to use them.[7] For this reason, some scholars consider them as being an indigenous rather than a Spanish creation.[8] Therefore, the use of the term has been avoided in recent academic works.[9] Regardless, pictorial cathecisms form a clear group, characterized by the use of a new iconographic and a hieroglyphic repertoire unrelated to that of Mesoamerican cultures. Due to the fragmented and dispersed state of the manuscripts, many of which are still not even individually named yet, the study of this group is still incipient. Relevant works include those of Galarza,[10] Anne Whited Normann,[11] and Hill-Boone.[9]

Falsified codices edit

This category comprises forgeries created during the 19th and 20th centuries in order to deceive institutions and individual collectors regarding their authenticity. They vary noticeably in their contents, materials and techniques. Some are purely fantastical, while other combine disparate native styles and sources. Materials vary from native amate paper, to agave fibers, parchments, cloth, animals skins and even coconut fiber.[12] Notable examples in this category are the Codex Moguntiacus,[13] the Codex of Lieberec and the Codex Hall. Finally, some recently surfaced documents, like the Codex Cardona, are still waiting to be confirmed as either forgeries, Techialoyan documents or actual traditional pictorials.[14]

Non-pictorial codices edit

Non pictorial manuscripts describing lost indigenous pictorials are rare; this category was contemplated, but not used, by Glass and Robertson originally, but in recent years such documents have emerged. One such example is the Códice Cabezón, a textual copy of Codex Tudela that was never illustrated,[15] and the Codex Fiestas, a copy of the lost pictorial Libro de Figuras, although the former contains some sketches of illustrations that were never completed.[16]

Pictography and writing edit

 
List of Aztec writing signs in the work of J. A. Aubin (1885).

Much controversy has been dedicated to the relationship between pictures and writing in these documents. While the polemic has been settled regarding the Maya, whose writing system is recognized nowadays as being logo-syllabic,[17] the relationship between image and writing in non-Maya mesoamerican manuscripts, which comprise a vast majority of these documents, has not reached an academic consensus as of yet. Current specialists are divided between grammatological perspectives, which consider these documents as a mixture of iconography and writing proper,[18] and semasiographical perspectives, which consider them a system of graphic communication which admits "glottography", or a limited representation of language.[19] In regards to linguistic affiliation, the problem is increased by the fact that some of the foremost among these documents are for now impossible to assign to any particular language due to the lack of any noticeable phoneticism in them (like Codex Borgia), while some others seems to illustrate Spanish rather than native accounts (like Codex Magliabechiano), or are a mixture of Spanish and native alphabetic glosses with native hieroglyphic writing (like the Codex Mendoza). Thus, the classification of these documents by Glass and Robertson was originally agnostic on the polemic of pictography and hieroglyphic writing, as well as on the linguistic affiliation of these documents.[1]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Handbook of Middle American Indians. Volume fourteen, volume fifteen, Guide to ethnohistorical sources. Robert Wauchope, Howard Francis Cline, Charles Gibson, H. B. Nicholson, Tulane University. Middle American Research Institute. Austin. 2015. ISBN 978-1-4773-0687-1. OCLC 974489206.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ^ Raven, James (2020). The Oxford illustrated history of the book (1st ed.). Oxford (GB): Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-870298-6.
  3. ^ Galarza, Joaquín. (1990). El papel, el libro : los códices mesoamericanos : guía para la introducción al estudio del material pictórico indígena [The paper, the book: Mesoamerican codices: guide for the introduction to the study of indigenous pictorial material]. Rubén. Maldonado Rojas (2nd ed.). México: Editorial TAVA. ISBN 968-6776-00-1. OCLC 31127841.
  4. ^ Robertson, Donald (1994). Mexican manuscript painting of the early colonial period : the metropolitan schools. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2675-2. OCLC 30436784.
  5. ^ Écrits : manuscrits à miniatures otomi. Alfonso M. García Téllez, Pierre Déléage, Jacques Galinier. Nanterre. 2018. ISBN 978-2-36519-027-5. OCLC 1066259291.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ Barlow, R. H. (1994–1995). Fuentes y estudios sobre el México indígena. Jesús. Monjarás-Ruiz, Elena Limón, Maricruz Paillés H. (1st ed.). México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. ISBN 968-6254-27-7. OCLC 33196379.
  7. ^ Bonilla Palmeros, Jesus Javier. "Un acercamiento a los catecismos indígenas del Siglo XVI" (PDF). Tetlacuilolli.
  8. ^ Galarza, Joaquín. (1992). Catecismos indígenas : el Pater Noster : método para el análisis de un manuscrito pictográfico del siglo XVIII con su aplicación en la primera oración, el Pater Noster. Aurore Monod-Becquelin (2a ed.). México: TAVA. ISBN 968-6776-02-8. OCLC 28272533.
  9. ^ a b Boone, Elizabeth Hill (2017). Painted words : Nahua Catholicism, politics, and memory in the Atzaqualco pictorial catechism. Louise M. Burkhart, David Eduardo Tavárez (First ed.). Washington, D.C. ISBN 978-0-88402-418-7. OCLC 949552604.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Galarza, Joaquín. (1992). Catecismos indígenas : el Pater Noster : método para el análisis de un manuscrito pictográfico del siglo XVIII con su aplicación en la primera oración, el Pater Noster. Aurore Monod-Becquelin (2nd ed.). México: TAVA. ISBN 968-6776-02-8. OCLC 28272533.
  11. ^ Normann, Anne Whited (1985). Testerian codices: hieroglyphic catechisms for native conversion in New Spain. New Orleans, Louisiana: Tulane University.
  12. ^ González Centeno, Gregorio (2018). "Falsificaciones de códices en papel de fibra de coco", in Códices y cultura indígena en México: homenaje a Alfonso Lacadena García Gallo. Juan José Batalla Rosado, José Luis de Rojas, Lisardo Pérez Lugones (1ª ed.). Madrid: BRF Servicios Editoriales. pp. 411–438. ISBN 978-84-09-06669-8. OCLC 1079365228.
  13. ^ Meer, Ron Van (2010-01-01). "The History of a Falsified Mesoamerican Pictorial Manuscript: The Codex Moguntiacus". Indiana. 27: 193–228. doi:10.18441/ind.v27i0.193-228. ISSN 2365-2225.
  14. ^ Bauer, Arnold J. (2009). The search for the Codex Cardona : on the trail of a sixteenth century mexican treasure. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4596-1. OCLC 319499265.
  15. ^ José, Batalla Rosado (2003). "Estudio formal y codicológico del Códice de Cabezón o Códice de Costumbres y Fiestas, enterramientos y diversas formas de proceder de los indios de Nueva España. Manuscrito sobre religión azteca del siglo XVI", In Actas del V Congreso Nacional de Historia del Papel en España : Sarrià de Ter, Girona, 2, 3 y 4 de octubre de 2003. Asociación Hispánica de Historiadores del Papel. Girona: CCG Ediciones. pp. 105–113. ISBN 84-95483-68-8. OCLC 56922351.
  16. ^ Batalla, Juan José. "El libro escrito europeo del Códice Fiestas o Fiestas de los indios a el Demonio en dias determinados y a los finados". Pueblos Originarios: Escritura y Simbología.
  17. ^ Johnson, Scott A. J. (2013). Translating Maya Hieroglyphs. Norman. ISBN 978-0-8061-4333-0. OCLC 814707434.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ Velásquez García, Erik (2018-05-31). "In memoriam Alfonso Lacadena". Estudios de Cultura Maya. 52: 306. doi:10.19130/iifl.ecm.2018.52.961. ISSN 2448-5179. S2CID 243900028.
  19. ^ Mikulska Dąbrowska, Katarzyna (2015). Tejiendo destinos : un acercamiento al sistema de comunicación gráfica en los códices adivinatorios (Primera ed.). Zinacantepec, México, México. ISBN 978-607-7761-77-8. OCLC 951433139.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

mesoamerican, codices, mesoamerican, codices, manuscripts, that, present, traits, mesoamerican, indigenous, pictoric, tradition, either, content, style, regards, their, symbolic, conventions, unambiguous, presence, mesoamerican, writing, systems, some, these, . Mesoamerican codices are manuscripts that present traits of the Mesoamerican indigenous pictoric tradition either in content style or in regards to their symbolic conventions 1 The unambiguous presence of Mesoamerican writing systems in some of these documents is also an important but not defining characteristic for Mesoamerican codices can comprise pure pictorials native cartographies with no traces of glyphs on them or colonial alphabetic texts with indigenous illustrations Perhaps the best known examples among such documents are Aztec codices Maya codices and Mixtec codices but other cultures such as the Tlaxcaltec the Purepecha the Otomi the Zapotecs and the Cuicatecs are creators of equally relevant manuscripts The destruction of Mesoamerican civilizations resulted in only about twenty known pre Columbian codices surviving to modern times 2 8 Some examples of facsimile versions of Mesoamerican codices Contents 1 Formats 2 Classification 2 1 Traditional Mesoamerican codices 2 2 Paintings from the Relaciones Geograficas 2 3 Techialoyan manuscripts 2 4 Pictorial cathecisms 2 5 Falsified codices 2 6 Non pictorial codices 3 Pictography and writing 4 ReferencesFormats editDuring the 19th century the word codex became popular to designate any pictorial manuscript in the Mesoamerican tradition In reality pre Columbian manuscripts are strictly speaking not codices since the strict librarian usage of the word denotes manuscript books made of vellum papyrus and other materials besides paper that have been sewn on one side 1 Instead precolumbian pictorials were made in native non codical formats some of these being the following 3 Tira A manuscript painted or drawn on a long and more or less narrow strip composed of sheets of animal hide or paper This is the most important format for many of the rest derive of it A well known example is the Codex Boturini Screenfold A manuscript painted on a tira and folded like a screen in the fashion of an accordion A classic example is the Codex Borgia Roll A tira that has been rolled An example is the Selden Roll Lienzo A sheet of cloth sometimes of grand format The Lienzo de Quauhquechollan is a notable example nbsp Boturini Codex an example of a tira nbsp Codex Bodley is a screenfold nbsp The Selden Roll a tira that has been rolled rather than folded nbsp The Lienzo de Quauhquechollan a cloth of large formatClassification editAccording to Donald Robertson and John B Glass the first scholars to propose a comprehensive census of such documents five categories can be discerned among them 1 The first is that of traditional pictorials which we will name traditional codexes in this article comprising numbers 1 599 in their catalog The second is that of paintings and maps from the Relaciones Geograficas a set of questionnaires elaborated by the colonial bureaucracy of the Spanish Empire during the reign of Phillip II numbers 601 699 The third category is that of Techialoyan manuscripts a number of late colonial manuscripts created during the 17th century with the intention to serve as legal documents for indigenous communities which display a noticeable similarity in style and format as well as sharing a regional origin numbers 701 799 The fourth category is that of pictorial cathecisms also known as Testerian cathecisms numbers 801 899 The fifth category is that of falsified pictorials Finally the category of nonpictorial texts which describe pictorials is contemplated but not used by Robertson and Glass numbers 1000 and up but examples of such documents exist too Besides this primary classification these documents can be further classified according to their origin their region and subject Thus in regards to their origin manuscripts can be distinguished as pre Columbian like those of the Borgia group those produced under Spanish patronage the Codex Mendoza being a notable example native colonial for example Codex Xolotl and mixed colonial like the Lienzo de Tlaxcala In regards to their topic these documents can be classified as dealing with the following topics ritual calendrical historical genealogical cartographic cartographic historical economic ethnographic and miscellaneous These manuscripts can comprise many regions Western Mexico mainly Michoacan Central Mexico Mexico City and the State of Mexico Guerrero Hidalgo Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala and Veracruz Oaxaca Southeast Mexico Chiapas and Yucatan and Guatemala Regional schools have been identified the classic division in the Central Mexican region was proposed by Donald Robertson who distinguished among them the schools of Tenochtitlan Tlatelolco and Tezcoco 4 Traditional Mesoamerican codices edit nbsp Codex Borbonicus a traditional Mesoamerican codexThis category comprises most pre Columbian and colonial Mesoamerican pictorials and is by far the best known and studied Individual manuscripts in this category are numerous totalling 434 in Robertson and Glass original census 1 and their number keeps increasing thanks to the discovery of new native traditional codices in Mexican villages An example of a recent addition would be the Codex Cuaxicala a pictorial document from the 16th century currently kept by the homonymous community of Huachinango Puebla A list of the most representative manuscripts from this category would be the following Pre Hispanic codices Aubin Tonalamatl Codex Borbonicus Codex Borgia Codex Cospi Codex Fejervari Mayer Codex Laud and Codex Vaticanus B the Aubin Manuscript no 20 Codex Bodley Codex Colombino Codex Nutall Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I Codex Dresden Codex Madrid the Paris Codex and the Maya Codex of Mexico Native codices produced under Spanish patronage Duran Codex Ramirez Codex the illustrations of Sahagun s Primeros Memoriales and the Florentine Codex Codex Rios Codex Telleriano Remensis Codex Ixtlilxochitl Codex Tudela Codex Magliabechiano Codex Mendoza the Matricula de Tributos Codex Badianus Relacion de Michoacan Native colonial codices From the Valley of Mexico Codex Aubin Codex Azcatitlan Boban Calendar Wheel Codex Boturini Codice en Cruz Plano en papel de maguey Codex Mexicanus Mapa Quinatzin Mapa Siguenza Tira de Tepechpan Mapa Tloztin Codex Xolotl From Central Mexico Codices of Azoyu 1 and 2 Maps of Cuauhtinchan 1 3 Codex Huamantla Codex Huichapan Humboldt fragment 1 Historia Tolteca Chichimeca Anales de Tula From Northern and Western Oaxaca Lienzo Antonio de Leon Codex Becker no 2 Lienzo de Coixtlahuaca no 1 and 2 Codice Fernandez Leal Lienzo de Santiago Ilhuitlan Lienzo de Santa Maria Nativitas Codex Porfirio Diaz Selden Roll Lienzo de Zacatepec no 1 Mixed native colonial codices Records of colonial history Lienzo de Cuauhquechollan Codex of Tlatelolco Lienzo de Tlaxcala Genealogical Confirmation des elections de Calpan Circular genealogy of Nezahualcoyotl Genealogia de los Principes mexicanos Genealogie de Tlatzantzin Genealogia de Zolin Maps and cartographic historical documents Lienzo de Chalchihuitzin Vasquez Mapa de Coatlinchan Mapa circular de Cuauhquechollan Codex Kinsborough Lienzo de Misantla Mapa de San Antonio Tepetlan Economic and land records Codice de Santa Maria Asuncion Codice Chavero Codex Cozcatzin Matricula de Huejotzingo Humboldt fragments Codex Kinsborough Codice Mariano Jimenez Codice Osuna Oztoticpac Lands Map Libro de Tributos de San Pablo Teocaltitlan Census of Tepoztlan Mapa catastral de Tepoztlan Codice de Tlamapa no 3 Codex Vergara Plans of Xochimilco Codex Santa Anita Zacatlalmanco 1 Contemporary codexes This category not contemplated by Robertson and Glass comprises all new indigenous pictorials made with traditional techniques and with indigenous contents like the contemporary otomi Alfonso Garcia Tellez Manuscripts 5 Within these categories some sub groupings of codices that are closely related in subject or that share a common prototype exist Among the most famous are the following Borgia group This well known group comprises Codex Borgia Codex Cospi Codex Fejervari Mayer Codex Laud and Codex Vaticanus B Huitzilopochtli group This grouping establishes the relationship between Codex Telleriano Remensis and Rios Lienzo de Tlaxcala group This group comprises all versions of the pictorial account of the Spanish Conquest in the point of view of the Tlaxcaltec collectively known as the Lienzo de Tlaxcala It is composed by three originals all unknown nowadays and 11 copies many incomplete Maya screenfolds The Dresden Codex Codex Madrid Codex Paris and the Maya Codex of Mexico Magliabechiano group This group has been studied in depth by Jose Batalla Rosado Pictorials belonging to it are the Codex Tudela Libro de Figuras Codice Ritos y Costumbres lost Codex Magliabechiano Codex Ixtlilxochitl I Codex Veytia and some images from the Decadas of Antonio de Herrera Non pictorial accounts in this group include Codice Fiestas Codice Cabezon and the Chronicle of New Spain of Salazar Nutall group Codex Colombino Codex Bodley Codex Nuttall Codex Selden anc Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I Sahagun drawings Primeros Memoriales and Florentine Codex Paintings from the Relaciones Geograficas edit nbsp Map of Metztitlan from the Relacion Geografica de Metztitlan 1579 This group comprises all the paintings and illustrations from the Relaciones Geograficas a series of documents produced as a result of questionnaires distributed to the territories under the jurisdiction of Phillip the Second King of Spain during the years 1579 1585 Besides their invaluable ethnohistorical ethnological and geographical data the Relaciones often includes a series of paintings and maps some considered to display elements of the native cartographical tradition Techialoyan manuscripts edit nbsp The Techialoyan Codex of Cuajimalpa an example of a Techialoyan manuscriptThe Techialoyan manuscripts is a group of indigenous Mexican manuscripts named after the Codex of San Antonio Techialoyan These documents were produced during the 18th century and reveal a set of common elements including the use of amate paper the presence of Nahuatl alphabetic glosses their artistic style their legal purpose and the fact that they were created in a number of villages in and around the State and the valley of Mexico 1 They were first classified by Robert Barlow 6 Some of them were produced by local indigenous artists in order to be recognized as legal documents for the colonial Spanish administration but were deemed as forgeries A foremost example of this class is the Codex Garcia Granados Pictorial cathecisms edit Pictorial cathecisms also known as Testerian manuscripts are documents containing prayers articles of faith or any part of the Catholic cathecism either drawn or written through mnemonic images or ad hoc hieroglyphs They are called Testerian because they were once taught to be an invention of the Franciscan friar Jacobo de Testera however most documents of this tradition are unrelated to Testera who was not even the first friar to use them 7 For this reason some scholars consider them as being an indigenous rather than a Spanish creation 8 Therefore the use of the term has been avoided in recent academic works 9 Regardless pictorial cathecisms form a clear group characterized by the use of a new iconographic and a hieroglyphic repertoire unrelated to that of Mesoamerican cultures Due to the fragmented and dispersed state of the manuscripts many of which are still not even individually named yet the study of this group is still incipient Relevant works include those of Galarza 10 Anne Whited Normann 11 and Hill Boone 9 Falsified codices edit This category comprises forgeries created during the 19th and 20th centuries in order to deceive institutions and individual collectors regarding their authenticity They vary noticeably in their contents materials and techniques Some are purely fantastical while other combine disparate native styles and sources Materials vary from native amate paper to agave fibers parchments cloth animals skins and even coconut fiber 12 Notable examples in this category are the Codex Moguntiacus 13 the Codex of Lieberec and the Codex Hall Finally some recently surfaced documents like the Codex Cardona are still waiting to be confirmed as either forgeries Techialoyan documents or actual traditional pictorials 14 Non pictorial codices edit Non pictorial manuscripts describing lost indigenous pictorials are rare this category was contemplated but not used by Glass and Robertson originally but in recent years such documents have emerged One such example is the Codice Cabezon a textual copy of Codex Tudela that was never illustrated 15 and the Codex Fiestas a copy of the lost pictorial Libro de Figuras although the former contains some sketches of illustrations that were never completed 16 Pictography and writing edit nbsp List of Aztec writing signs in the work of J A Aubin 1885 Much controversy has been dedicated to the relationship between pictures and writing in these documents While the polemic has been settled regarding the Maya whose writing system is recognized nowadays as being logo syllabic 17 the relationship between image and writing in non Maya mesoamerican manuscripts which comprise a vast majority of these documents has not reached an academic consensus as of yet Current specialists are divided between grammatological perspectives which consider these documents as a mixture of iconography and writing proper 18 and semasiographical perspectives which consider them a system of graphic communication which admits glottography or a limited representation of language 19 In regards to linguistic affiliation the problem is increased by the fact that some of the foremost among these documents are for now impossible to assign to any particular language due to the lack of any noticeable phoneticism in them like Codex Borgia while some others seems to illustrate Spanish rather than native accounts like Codex Magliabechiano or are a mixture of Spanish and native alphabetic glosses with native hieroglyphic writing like the Codex Mendoza Thus the classification of these documents by Glass and Robertson was originally agnostic on the polemic of pictography and hieroglyphic writing as well as on the linguistic affiliation of these documents 1 References edit a b c d e f g Handbook of Middle American Indians Volume fourteen volume fifteen Guide to ethnohistorical sources Robert Wauchope Howard Francis Cline Charles Gibson H B Nicholson Tulane University Middle American Research Institute Austin 2015 ISBN 978 1 4773 0687 1 OCLC 974489206 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link CS1 maint others link Raven James 2020 The Oxford illustrated history of the book 1st ed Oxford GB Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 870298 6 Galarza Joaquin 1990 El papel el libro los codices mesoamericanos guia para la introduccion al estudio del material pictorico indigena The paper the book Mesoamerican codices guide for the introduction to the study of indigenous pictorial material Ruben Maldonado Rojas 2nd ed Mexico Editorial TAVA ISBN 968 6776 00 1 OCLC 31127841 Robertson Donald 1994 Mexican manuscript painting of the early colonial period the metropolitan schools Norman University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 0 8061 2675 2 OCLC 30436784 Ecrits manuscrits a miniatures otomi Alfonso M Garcia Tellez Pierre Deleage Jacques Galinier Nanterre 2018 ISBN 978 2 36519 027 5 OCLC 1066259291 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link CS1 maint others link Barlow R H 1994 1995 Fuentes y estudios sobre el Mexico indigena Jesus Monjaras Ruiz Elena Limon Maricruz Pailles H 1st ed Mexico D F Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia ISBN 968 6254 27 7 OCLC 33196379 Bonilla Palmeros Jesus Javier Un acercamiento a los catecismos indigenas del Siglo XVI PDF Tetlacuilolli Galarza Joaquin 1992 Catecismos indigenas el Pater Noster metodo para el analisis de un manuscrito pictografico del siglo XVIII con su aplicacion en la primera oracion el Pater Noster Aurore Monod Becquelin 2a ed Mexico TAVA ISBN 968 6776 02 8 OCLC 28272533 a b Boone Elizabeth Hill 2017 Painted words Nahua Catholicism politics and memory in the Atzaqualco pictorial catechism Louise M Burkhart David Eduardo Tavarez First ed Washington D C ISBN 978 0 88402 418 7 OCLC 949552604 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Galarza Joaquin 1992 Catecismos indigenas el Pater Noster metodo para el analisis de un manuscrito pictografico del siglo XVIII con su aplicacion en la primera oracion el Pater Noster Aurore Monod Becquelin 2nd ed Mexico TAVA ISBN 968 6776 02 8 OCLC 28272533 Normann Anne Whited 1985 Testerian codices hieroglyphic catechisms for native conversion in New Spain New Orleans Louisiana Tulane University Gonzalez Centeno Gregorio 2018 Falsificaciones de codices en papel de fibra de coco in Codices y cultura indigena en Mexico homenaje a Alfonso Lacadena Garcia Gallo Juan Jose Batalla Rosado Jose Luis de Rojas Lisardo Perez Lugones 1ª ed Madrid BRF Servicios Editoriales pp 411 438 ISBN 978 84 09 06669 8 OCLC 1079365228 Meer Ron Van 2010 01 01 The History of a Falsified Mesoamerican Pictorial Manuscript The Codex Moguntiacus Indiana 27 193 228 doi 10 18441 ind v27i0 193 228 ISSN 2365 2225 Bauer Arnold J 2009 The search for the Codex Cardona on the trail of a sixteenth century mexican treasure Durham Duke University Press ISBN 978 0 8223 4596 1 OCLC 319499265 Jose Batalla Rosado 2003 Estudio formal y codicologico del Codice de Cabezon o Codice de Costumbres y Fiestas enterramientos y diversas formas de proceder de los indios de Nueva Espana Manuscrito sobre religion azteca del siglo XVI In Actas del V Congreso Nacional de Historia del Papel en Espana Sarria de Ter Girona 2 3 y 4 de octubre de 2003 Asociacion Hispanica de Historiadores del Papel Girona CCG Ediciones pp 105 113 ISBN 84 95483 68 8 OCLC 56922351 Batalla Juan Jose El libro escrito europeo del Codice Fiestas o Fiestas de los indios a el Demonio en dias determinados y a los finados Pueblos Originarios Escritura y Simbologia Johnson Scott A J 2013 Translating Maya Hieroglyphs Norman ISBN 978 0 8061 4333 0 OCLC 814707434 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Velasquez Garcia Erik 2018 05 31 In memoriam Alfonso Lacadena Estudios de Cultura Maya 52 306 doi 10 19130 iifl ecm 2018 52 961 ISSN 2448 5179 S2CID 243900028 Mikulska Dabrowska Katarzyna 2015 Tejiendo destinos un acercamiento al sistema de comunicacion grafica en los codices adivinatorios Primera ed Zinacantepec Mexico Mexico ISBN 978 607 7761 77 8 OCLC 951433139 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mesoamerican Codices amp oldid 1189327739, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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