- Museum number
- Am2006,Drg.31219
- Title
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Object: Xiuhpohualli of Tenochtitlan Codex
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Object: Códice Aubin 1576
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Object: Códice de 1576
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Object: Historia de la nación mexicana
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Object: Histoire mexicaine
- Description
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Codex consisting of eighty-one leaves of European paper bound in red leather and guarded out. A painted pictorial history of the Mexican people, together with printed text in Nahuatl of the Aztecs, recording the names of the Indian tribes who travelled together and the leaders of the Aztecs, with their departure from Aztlán and the dynastic history of Tenochtitlan and colonial events.
- Production date
- 1576
- Dimensions
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Height: 15.50 centimetres
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Width: 13.40 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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The Xiuhpohualli of Tenochtitlan Codex (Aubin) includes 440 years of the history of the Mexica or Azteca people beginning with its origins, narrating from its initial peregrination to the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlán, today Mexico City. This codex showcases information about the Mexica governors and tells the story of the arrival of the conquistador Hernan Cortes and his army, also providing valuable information about the early colonial period.
The Santo Domingo Centre for Excellence in Latin American Research (SDCELAR) project: 'Ancient Writing, Contemporary Voices: Decolonising the Mesoamerican Quincentenary' (2021) gathered a group of Indigenous archaeologists to study Mesoamerican writing collections. Key collaborators: Osiris Sinuhé González Romero and Raul Macuil Martínez.
References:
Chavero Alfredo (1980). Antonio Peñafiel, ed. Códice Aubin: Manuscrito Azteca de la biblioteca real de Berlín, anales en mexicano y jeroglíficos desde la salida de las tribus de Aztlán hasta la muerte de Cuauhtemoc. Editorial Innovación.
Johansson, Patrick K. (2004a) La palabra, la imagen y el manuscrito, lecturas indígenas de un texto pictórico en el siglo XVI, México, UNAM, 480 p.
Aubin, Joseph Marius Alexis (2009) Memorias sobre la pintura didáctica y la escritura figurativa de los antiguos mexicanos. México, Universidad nacional Autónoma de México-Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.
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Further details of other names: Historia de la nación mexicana (Boturini) and Histoire mexicaine (Aubin).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2002, London, Royal Academy, Aztecs
2003, Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Aztecs
- Condition
- good
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Aubin Codex (Manuscript formerly named after Joseph Aubin, who owned the book in the 1800s and published a reproduction in 1893. Change of name proposed by Raul Macuil Martínez, Nahua archaeologist. ‘Xiuhpohualli’ refers to the pre-Columbian calendar used by Nahua Peoples and used in this book.)
- Acquisition date
- 1880
- Acquisition notes
- Transferred from the former British Museum Library, Department of Manuscript to the Department of Ceramics and Ethnography 20th October 1926.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am2006,Drg.31219
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: Add Ms 31219
