Mesoamerican Codices

(*Oversized Collection.) Written by an Indian physician in Aztec and translated into Latin by another Indian, this manuscript gives a picture of Aztec medicine at the time of the conquest. It is an herbal, and therefore deals with the pharmacological treatment of diseases. Because the manuscript is illustrated with pictures which are helpful in identifying plants, it is a valuable source of Aztec lexicography since the Aztec names were used.

Online exhibit from the University of Virginia Health Sciences Library with a selection of herbal recipes from the Badianus Manuscript. (http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/rare_books/herbalism/badianus.cfm)

(**Oversized) Codex Becker No. I consists of fragments of a larger document of which the Códice Colombino also forms a part. It treats the life and history of the 11th C. Mixtec ruler, 8 Deer, and has dates embracing the years A.D. 1047-68.

(**Oversized) Codex Becker No. II is divided into two horizontal bands. In the lower band are nine Indian couples with calendrical and personal name glyphs. In the upper are six couples added by a different or later hand, which was also responsible for the place gylphs in the lower division. Both sets of drawings are in the traditional Mixtec style.

(***Oversized. Introduction in German and French; summaries in English, French, and Spanish.) The date of this early calendrical source is controversial, with some arguing for a preconquest date and others for an early colonial date, possibly before 1541. The manuscript has four major sections. Part I is a tonalpohualli or 260-day divinatory almanac. Part 2 shows the association of the 9 Lords of the Night with the yearbearer days for a 52-year period. Part 3 is an 18-month festival calendar for a New Fire ceremony year. Part 4 repeats one of the month ceremonies and continues with year dates for a 52-year period.

(*Oversized. Summaries in English, French, and Spanish.) Generally considered to be among the finest specimens of Pre-Columbian art, this manuscript is the most important, detailed, and complex pictorial source extant for the study of Central Mexican gods, ritual, divination, calendar, religion, and iconography. Most of the 28 sections are devoted to different aspects of the Tonalpohualli, the Mesoamerican 260-day divinatory period. Other sections depict complex rituals whose significance remains obscure.

Text of facsimile in Nahuatl, text of book in Spanish.