The Aztec capital before Corés
Prior to 1519 CE a thriving empire existed in what is now central Mexico (British Museum). These people were known as the Aztecs and their capital city was Tenochtitlan. Mann (2006), describes the city as an “opulent city of canals and (mostly) artificial islands in the middle of a great mountain lake.” It “stunned the conquistadors when they first saw it” (p141).
Citations
Jones, C. (n.d.). Mexico. The British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/mexico
Mann, C. C. (2006). 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Vintage Books.
Sixteenth Century codex image depicting destruction caused by the Spanish
“For wherever the Spaniards have passed, conquering and discovering, it is as though a fire had gone, destroying everything in its path” (Mann, 2006, p. 143).
The story of the Spanish invasion of the Aztec empire is one that is common to many colonialization efforts. Some locals died from fighting and wars that broke out but many, if not more, died from the diseases that tagged along (Mann, 2006).
The “codex” images displayed here showcase what happened after the Spanish arrived and already indicate colonial influences, as can be seen by the date in the top scene. It is nearly impossible to know if the Aztecs had libraries in the sense that Europeans would define them but, thanks to surviving fragments, we do know there was a rich written culture. Though he mixes the cultures of the Mayans and Aztecs, according to Keith Houston (2016) “the arrival of the conquistadores spelled the end of this ancient literate culture” (p269). Let’s explore some of what was lost…
Citations
Houston, K. (2016). The book: A cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time. W. W. Norton.
Mann, C. C. (2006). 1491: Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Vintage Books.
Image credit: photo of page 142 from 1491 (cited above) taken by the author.
Amate: the substrate for pre-colonial literature in the Aztec Empire
“Spanish missionaries burned great piles of āmoxtli in a relentless drive to eradicate the indigenous beliefs of their new colonies. The history, scriptures, and everyday records of an entire culture were systematically reduced to ashes and the use of āmatl driven almost to extinction” (Houston, 2016, p. 269).
The Aztecs used a visual language, not unlike the hieroglyphics of the Ancient Egyptians, for their written documents (mexicolore). They used paper made from the bark of fig and mulberry trees, called amate, for their books, maps, and calendars (Houston, 2016). This is not unlike the papyrus used by Ancient Egyptians and backs that the argument that documents made and written by the Aztecs could have comprised libraries if most weren’t destroyed when the Spanish arrived.
Citations
Aztec books - an introduction. (n.d.). Aztecs at Mexicolore. https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/writing/an-introduction-to-aztec-books
Houston, K. (2016). The book: A cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time. W. W. Norton.
Image credit: photo of amate owned by the author.
The surviving books
While often referred to as “codices”, this is a Western term for a book structure that developed in Egypt between the second and fourth centuries CE and spread throughout Europe. Codex books are bound all on one side, known as the spine, and open on the other side, known as the fore edge. The books created by the Aztecs were screen folds, often referred to today as accordion books (Khan Academy). This means that they were created from long sheets of paper that was folded back and forth on itself. Like scrolls, they had a specific orientation and were meant to be read in a specific order, but did not have a spine or fore edge. In the course of this research it also appears that some of these documents were bound in a codex format after they arrived at the institutions in Europe that would take ownership of them.
While some sources list 500 Aztec codices, it seems that only 20 surviving documents are pre-Colombian and some sources consider just 5 as "genuine" while other sources only consider 2 to be genuine (Mexicolore; New World Encyclopedia; The Guardian). Because the Spanish took it upon themselves to annotate Aztec documents that existed when they arrived, it can be difficult to determine what was created prior to 1519. The consensus is that the two proven pre-Hispanic codices are the Codex Barbonicus and the Tonalamatl Aubin (Mexicolore).
Almost immediately after the arrival of the conquistadors, the Aztecs began chronicling their treatment by as well as the diseases brought by the Spaniards. This work comprises the 500 codices that are often cited and some have now begun to refer to these works as “colonial codices” (Mexicolore). These works included the traditional Nahuatl pictograms as well as writing in either Spanish or Nahuatl making them easier to understand by the colonizers and showing the immediate influence and cultural takeover.
Citations
Aztec books - an introduction. (n.d.). Aztecs at Mexicolore. https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/writing/an-introduction-to-aztec-books
Khan Academy. (n.d.). Codex Borgia (article) | Aztec (Mexica). https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/early-cultures/aztec-mexica/a/codex-borgia
New World Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Aztec codices - New World Encyclopedia. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/aztec_codices
ter Minassian, V. (2017, October 5). Aztec manuscript under the microscope. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/codex-borbonicus-aztec-manuscript-date
Image credit: Image is a screenshot from the Khan Academy article cited above
Collection policies and the dark side of collecting Aztec codices
Aside from taking over the land, it’s unclear if the conquistadors had any collection policies in mind outside of taking all the gold, silver, and jewels they found when they invaded Mexico (Mann, 2006). The hunger of Europeans for items from the new world means that most of the codices, both pre- and post-colonization, do not reside in Mexico. Wikipedia sums things up nicely stating that “the large extant body of manuscripts that did survive can now be found in museums, archives, and private collections” (Wikipedia, n.d., Survival and Preservation section). Indeed, research for this project was unable to determine how many, if any, codices are held by Aztec or Mexican collections.
The Aubin Tonalamatl resides at the National Library of France and the Codex Barbonicus is part of the Vatican Library (Library of Congress, n.d.). The British Library holds at least one codex, known as the Zouche-Nuttall Codex and others, like the Codex Mendoza are at the Bodelian Libraries at Oxford University (British Museum; Bodelian Libraries).
While these institutions are no doubt taking good care of the codices and some even offer full, free digital access to the codices, the separations of the books and documents from their home country is a great loss for the descendants of the Aztecs, some of whom still identify as Azteca and speak Nahuatl to this day. This is also means that much of the research done on these documents has been done by Westerners with no direct connections to the language or culture that the books came from. As can be seen in other portions of this project, that means that confusion surrounds the Aztec codices. Some reputable sources, such as Keith Houston (2006) who wrote a book on the history of the book add to the confusion by mixing information about documents created by the Aztecs and by the southern neighbors, the Mayans, treating all books “collected” from central and southern Mexico as the same despite being created by different cultures.
While the institutions that hold these collections provide at least partial provenance for the items, none appear to be interested in repatriation. The British Museum states that their codex “was not archaeologically excavated, but instead was purchased” after is “appeared in a Dominican monastery in Florence in 1859” (British Museum). This story separates the museum from the origin of the work and would appear to absolve them of any wrong doing should anyone wish to argue that the item was stolen. The Bodelian Libraries trace the provenance of the Codex Mendoza back to the early 1500s though there are no notes on how it was acquired by its first owner, one Thomas Smith (Bodelian Libraries). The Library of Congress record for the Aubin Tonalamatl states that the place of publication and publisher are not identified and the record for the original item in the National Library of France was difficult to track down.
These incomplete collection records further add holes to the history of a people and nation and minimize the importance of the documents as well as the devastation caused by the conquistadors.
Citations
Bodelian Libraries. (n.d.). “Codex Mendoza”, etc. : Digital Bodleian. Bodelian Libraries, Oxford University. https://iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/iiif/viewer/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00486220/#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=16&r=0&xywh=1152%2C1066%2C8877%2C5285
Houston, K. (2016). The book: A cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time. W. W. Norton.
Jones, C. (n.d.-b). Mexico. The British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/mexico
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Aubin Tonalamatl. The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668125/
Mann, C. C. (2006). 1491: Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Vintage Books.
Wikipedia contributors. (2022h, February 10). Aztec codices. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_codices#Survival_and_preservation
Image credit
Image is of three Aztec “artifacts” collected by the author’s partner who identifies as Azteca.
Continuing concerns and challenges today
The lack of provenance information and acknowledgement of the location of creations, as well as the creators, of the Aztec codices continues to cause confusion for historians and researchers and further separates a group of marginalized people from their past. Some strides are being made and in 2021 the blog on the British Museum website shared information about a new indigenous date for the arrival of the conquistadors in Mexico based on research by a Mixtec archaeologist (British Museum). 2021 also saw the publication of a new book by Lori Bornazian Diel that seeks to further explain the Aztec codices: Aztec Codices: What They Tell Us About Daily Life. Still, it should be noted that access to this information is limited. One must know the names of the codices or where they reside to find the digital records. Diel’s book is expensive and not widely available.
Destruction of books, documents, and cultural objects continues today. Ongoing wars often destroy objects of cultural significance whether by proximity or through intention, as was the case with the Aztec codices (Mann, 2006). An excellent resource for more contemporary concerns about cultural destruction during war is The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel (2009). This book chronicle attempts to preserve artworks, books, and architecture as the Nazis tried to conquer Europe.
Other attempts at erasing the stories of marginalized groups abound in today’s headlines as book bans and even book burnings sweep across the United States. Titles of concern in these stories include works by members of the Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA+ groups. Book Riot keeps a weekly log of book censorship news.
It appears that the erasure, or attempts at erasure, of cultures through the destruction of books and libraries is going to continue for the foreseeable future.
Citations
https:\/\/blog.britishmuseum.org\/author\/elizabeth-morrison\/#author. (2021, November 26). An Indigenous reframing of the fall of the Aztec empire - British Museum Blog. British Museum Blog - Explore Stories from the Museum. https://blog.britishmuseum.org/an-indigenous-reframing-of-the-fall-of-the-aztec-empire/
Image credit: screenshot from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/mexico
Resources
This lecture from 2021 hosted by the Book Club of California was the impetus for this project.
The British Museum has a lecture available on their website that discusses Aztec scribes.
Mexicolore has an abundance of well-summarized information about Aztec culture for students of all ages.
Image credit: screenshot from https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3930187