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Codex Xolotl

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The Aztec king Chimalpopoca in Huitzilopochtli costume, from the Codex Xolotl.

The Codex Xolotl (also known as Códice Xolotl) is a postconquest cartographic Aztec codex, thought to have originated before 1542.[1][2] The text is primarily graphic, but it is also annotated in Nahuatl. It details the preconquest history of the Basin of Mexico, and Texcoco in particular, from the arrival of the Chichimeca under the ruler Xolotl in the year 5 Flint (1224 C.E.) to the Tepanec War in 1427.[3][4]

The codex describes Xolotl's and the Chichimecas' entry to an unpopulated basin as peaceful. Although this picture is confirmed by the writings of mestizo historian of Texcoco Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (1568 or 1580–1648),[5] there is other evidence that suggests that the area was inhabited by the Toltecs.[6] Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a direct descendant of Ixtlilxochitl I and Ixtlilxochitl II, based much of his writings on the documents[7] which he most probably obtained from relatives in Texcoco or Teotihuacan.[8] The codex was first brought to Europe in 1840 by the French scientist Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin [fr], and is currently held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.[9] The manuscript consists of six amatl boards measuring 42 cm × 48 cm (17 in × 19 in), with ten pages and three fragments from one or more pages.[10] While it is unknown who did the binding of the manuscript, it is cast like a European book back to back.[10] The Codex Xolotl has been an important source for detailed information on material culture, social, political and cultural changes in the region during the period.[11] It is one of the few still surviving cartographic histories from the Valley of Mexico and one of the earliest of its type.[12]

Historical significance

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The Codex Xolotl is an example of material culture. This means that the codex can be used as a means to understand the culture of the Aztecs and regional variation. The codex itself shows an understanding of the history of Texcoco.[13] It is also a document that includes an early instance of Nahuatl writings referencing specific dates in an indigenous calendar.[14] There are ongoing debates regarding how many writers were involved in creating the codex.[15]

There are some debates that question how valid the codex is from an archaeological perspective. This debate roots itself in the work of Jeffrey Parsons in 1970s, with his book detailing the archaeology of the Texcoco region.[16] One perspective on this debate states that the codex itself is not supported by the archaeological evidence of the region.[17]

Another argument claims that within the discrepancies, some historical facts can be separated from the mythology.[13] An alternate response to Parsons' argument uses a hypothesis regarding a conflict between the Tula and Cholula regions to support Parsons' position.[18]

See also

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references

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  1. ^ Lockhart, James (1992). The Nahuas after the conquest: a social and cultural history of the Indians of central Mexico, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Stanford University Press. p. 578. ISBN 978-0-8047-2317-6.
  2. ^ Douglas, Eduardo de J. (2010). In the Palace of Nezahualcoyotl: Painting Manuscripts, Writing the Pre-Hispanic Past in Early Colonial Period Tetzcoco, Mexico. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72168-5., 25-26
  3. ^ Berdan, Frances (1996). Aztec imperial strategies. Dumbarton Oaks. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-88402-211-4.
  4. ^ Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel (2006). Handbook to life in the Aztec world. Infobase Publishing. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-8160-5673-6.
  5. ^ Fernando Alves Ixtlilxovhitl, Obras históricas 2 vols. Mexico: UNAM 1975, 1977
  6. ^ Florescano 2006, p. 51
  7. ^ Lee, Jongsoo (2008). The allure of Nezahualcoyotl: pre-Hispanic history, religion, and Nahua poetics. University of New Mexico Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8263-4337-6.
  8. ^ Douglas 2010, p. 18
  9. ^ Douglas 2010, p. 17
  10. ^ a b Douglas 2010, p. 19
  11. ^ Florescano 2006, p. 49
  12. ^ Woodward, David (2005). History of cartography, Volume 2. Humana Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-226-90728-4.
  13. ^ a b Calnek, Edward E. (1973). "The Historical Validity of the Codex Xolotl". American Antiquity. 38 (4): 424. doi:10.2307/279147. JSTOR 279147. S2CID 161510221.
  14. ^ "Códice Xolotl". pueblosoriginarios.com. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  15. ^ Offner, Jerome A. (2016). "Ixtlilxochitl's Ethnographic Encounter: Understanding the Codex Xolotl and Its Dependent Alphabetic Texts". In Galen Brokaw; Jongsoo Lee (eds.). Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl and His Legacy. University of Arizona Press. pp. 77–121. ISBN 9780816500727. JSTOR j.ctt19zbzgh.5.
  16. ^ Michels, Joseph W. (1973). "Review of Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Texcoco Region, Mexico". American Journal of Archaeology. 77 (1): 117–118. doi:10.2307/503272. JSTOR 503272.
  17. ^ Calnek, Edward E. (1973). "The Historical Validity of the Codex Xolotl". American Antiquity. 38 (4): 423–427. doi:10.2307/279147. JSTOR 279147. S2CID 161510221.
  18. ^ Charlton, Thomas H. (1973). "Texcoco Region Archaeology and the Codex Xolotl". American Antiquity. 38 (4): 412–423. doi:10.2307/279146. JSTOR 279146. S2CID 162684010.

Further reading

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  • Dibble, Charles E., (ed.) 1951. Códice Xolotl. Mexico City: Publicaciones del Instituto de Historia.
  • Florescano, Enrique (2006). National narratives in Mexico: a history. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8061-3701-8.
  • Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando de Alva. 1975. Obras históricas, edited by Edmundo O'Gorman. 2 vols. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.
  • Mikulska, Katarzyna and Jerome A. Offner, eds. 2019. Graphic Communication Systems: A Theoretical Approach. Louisville: University Press of Colorado.
  • Offner, Jerome A. 2016. "Ixtlilxochitl's Ethnographic Encounter: Understanding the Codex Xolotl and Its Dependent Alphabetic Texts." In Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl and His Legacy, edited by Galen Brokaw and Jongsoo Lee, 77-121. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
  • Offner, Jerome A. 2017. "Complex Glyphic Expression in the Corpus Xolotl." Paper presented at the First European Nahuatl Conference in Memory of James Lockhart, University of Warsaw, Poland, 17-18 November.
  • Offner, Jerome A. 2018. "Apuntes sobre la plancha X del Códice Xolotl: Cincuenta años más tarde." In El arte de escribir: El Centro de México del posclásico al siglo XVII, trans by Agnieszka Brylak and edited by Juan José Batalla Rosado and Miguel Angel Ruz Barrio, 151-72. Zinacantepec, Mexico: El Colegio Mexiquense.
  • Offner, Jerome A. 2021 "Empires of Xolotl: Two Opening Compositions of the Codex Xolotl". Ethnohistory 68:4 (October 2021). DOI 10.1215/00141801-9157201
  • Szoblik, Katarzyna. 2019. "Traces of Orality in the Codex Xolotl, In Indigenous Graphic Communication Systems, 204-09. Louisville: University Press of Colorado.
  • Thouvenot, Marc. 1987. "Codex Xolotl. Étude d'une des compasantes de son écriture: les glyphes. Dictionnaire des éléments constitutifs des glyphes." PhD diss. École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales, Paris.
  • Thouvenot, Marc. 2005. "Codex Xolotl. Dictionnaire des éléments constitutifs des anthroponmes et toponymes"
  • Woodward, Hayley. "The Codex Xolotl: The Visual Discourse of Place and History in Early Colonial Mexico. PhD dissertation, Tulane University 2023.
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