Codex Xolotl
{{Short description|Postconquest cartographic Aztec codex}}
{{italic title}}
File:Chimalpopoca huitzilopochtli.jpg 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.{{cite book |title=The Nahuas after the conquest: a social and cultural history of the Indians of central Mexico, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries |last=Lockhart |first=James |year=1992 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-2317-6 |page=578 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3gjmz-nNAt8C }}{{cite book |title=In the Palace of Nezahualcoyotl: Painting Manuscripts, Writing the Pre-Hispanic Past in Early Colonial Period Tetzcoco, Mexico |last=Douglas |first=Eduardo de J. |year=2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-72168-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JK5SyW7xELwC}}, 25-26 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.{{cite book |title=Aztec imperial strategies |last=Berdan |first=Frances |year=1996 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |isbn=978-0-88402-211-4 |page=198 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fh29E1nLlBgC }}{{cite book |title=Handbook to life in the Aztec world |last=Aguilar-Moreno |first=Manuel |year=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-5673-6 |page=274 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iT5cww4rQdoC }}
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),Fernando Alves Ixtlilxovhitl, Obras históricas 2 vols. Mexico: UNAM 1975, 1977 there is other evidence that suggests that the area was inhabited by the Toltecs.{{harvnb|Florescano|2006|p=51}} Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a direct descendant of Ixtlilxochitl I and Ixtlilxochitl II, based much of his writings on the documents{{cite book |title=The allure of Nezahualcoyotl: pre-Hispanic history, religion, and Nahua poetics |last=Lee |first=Jongsoo |year=2008 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-4337-6 |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R8LqsuokdzUC }} which he most probably obtained from relatives in Texcoco or Teotihuacan.{{harvnb|Douglas|2010|p=18}} The codex was first brought to Europe in 1840 by the French scientist {{ill|Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin|fr}}, and is currently held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.{{harvnb|Douglas|2010|p=17}}
The manuscript consists of six amatl boards measuring {{convert|42|×|48|cm|in|abbr=on}}, with ten pages and three fragments from one or more pages.{{harvnb|Douglas|2010|p=19}} While it is unknown who did the binding of the manuscript, it is cast like a European book back to back. 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.{{harvnb|Florescano|2006|p=49}} It is one of the few still surviving cartographic histories from the Valley of Mexico and one of the earliest of its type.{{cite book |title=History of cartography, Volume 2 |last=Woodward |first=David |year=2005 |publisher=Humana Press |isbn=978-0-226-90728-4 |page=205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k_NoubO0RiYC }}
Historical significance
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.{{Cite journal|last=Calnek|first=Edward E.|date=1973|title=The Historical Validity of the Codex Xolotl|jstor=279147|journal=American Antiquity|volume=38|issue=4|pages=424|doi=10.2307/279147|s2cid=161510221 }} It is also a document that includes an early instance of Nahuatl writings referencing specific dates in an indigenous calendar.{{Cite web|url=http://pueblosoriginarios.com/norte/suroeste/chichimeca/xolotl.html|title=Códice Xolotl|website=pueblosoriginarios.com|access-date=2017-10-25}} There are ongoing debates regarding how many writers were involved in creating the codex.{{Cite book |title=Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl and His Legacy |editor1=Galen Brokaw |editor2=Jongsoo Lee |jstor=j.ctt19zbzgh.5 |chapter=Ixtlilxochitl's Ethnographic Encounter: Understanding the Codex Xolotl and Its Dependent Alphabetic Texts |pages=77–121 |last1=Offner |first1=Jerome A. |year=2016 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=9780816500727}}
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.{{Cite journal|last=Michels|first=Joseph W.|date=1973|title=Review of Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Texcoco Region, Mexico|jstor=503272|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|volume=77|issue=1|pages=117–118|doi=10.2307/503272}} One perspective on this debate states that the codex itself is not supported by the archaeological evidence of the region.{{Cite journal|last=Calnek|first=Edward E.|date=1973|title=The Historical Validity of the Codex Xolotl|jstor=279147|journal=American Antiquity|volume=38|issue=4|pages=423–427|doi=10.2307/279147|s2cid=161510221 }}
Another argument claims that within the discrepancies, some historical facts can be separated from the mythology. An alternate response to Parsons' argument uses a hypothesis regarding a conflict between the Tula and Cholula regions to support Parsons' position.{{Cite journal|last=Charlton|first=Thomas H.|date=1973|title=Texcoco Region Archaeology and the Codex Xolotl|jstor=279146|journal=American Antiquity|volume=38|issue=4|pages=412–423|doi=10.2307/279146|s2cid=162684010 }}
See also
references
{{Reflist|2}}
Further reading
- Dibble, Charles E., (ed.) 1951. Códice Xolotl. Mexico City: Publicaciones del Instituto de Historia.
- {{cite book |title=National narratives in Mexico: a history |last=Florescano |first=Enrique |year=2006 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-3701-8 |page=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTimQMj0vM0C&pg=PA49 }}
- 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.
External links
- [https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc71719k High Definition scans of the codex at the French National Library]
- [https://historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/publicadigital/libros/019a/codice_xolotl.html Codex Xolotl, edited by Charles Dibble 1951]
{{commons category|position=left|Codex Xolotl}}
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Category:16th century in the Aztec civilization
Category:16th century in Mexico
Category:16th century in New Spain
Category:16th-century illuminated manuscripts