Codex Ixtlilxochitl

Codex Ixtlilxochitl (Nahuatl for "black-faced flower") is a pictorial Aztec Codex created between 1580 and 1584, during the Spanish colonial era in Mexico. It depicts past ceremonies and holidays observed at the Great Teocalli of the Aztec altepetl or city-state of Texcoco, near modern-day Mexico City, and has visual representations of rulers and deities with association to Texcoco. The existence of this codex is a demonstration of the cultural assimilations and interactions between native Aztecs, Spanish colonists, and mestizos that occurred during the 17th century in Mexico as the colonies developed and their residents, of all cultures, endeavored to find a balance between native tradition and colonial innovation.
The codex is crafted in the native style using natural pigments and ink, as well as more advanced techniques learned from the Spanish colonists. Folios 94-104 were created with the traditional naturally-sourced color palettes of pre-European codices: red from the cochineal insect, yellow from tecoçahuitl stones and flowering plants, black from tree sap and charcoal, green from trees and native brush plants, blue from flowering herbs, and various more muted shades derived from crushing and moistening minerals. In folios 105–112, European influence is evident in the advancements in the rendering of forms seen in the depictions of various rulers and deities of Texcoco, elevated saturations of pigment, the usage of applied gold leaf on ornamental details, and the usage of European paper as opposed to the bark of wild fig trees. The final folios, 113–122, contain no imagery, and are made exclusively with European ink. The codex amounts to 27 total pages of European paper, and contains 29 total visual illustrations.The physical manuscript itself roughly measures 21 x 31 centimeters.
While the artists of the individual images are unknown, it can be assumed that they were Aztec natives under the direction of Spanish clergy for the purpose of identifying rituals that were deemed to be sacrilegious by the Spanish Catholics. The codex itself is three of these separate documents, making up distinguishable sections, and was assembled by Fernando de Alva Cortez Ixtlilxochitl (c.1578?–1650) a nobleman and historian of esteemed status due to his direct descent from Ixtlilxochitl I and Ixtlilxochitl II, who had been tlatoani(rulers) of the altepetl (city-state) of Texcoco. The attribution of numerous historical chronicles to him was a result of his role as a government-sanctioned archivist and as well as his skills in interpretation and recording of Aztec culture and language; as a result of his achievements at the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, he was commissioned by New Spain's viceroy Luis de Velasco to interpret between Spanish speakers and Nahuatl speakers in matters of government and chronicle in detail the history of the Aztec peoples. The Codex Ixtlilxochitl was a result of this chronicling, and mainly discusses Aztec deities and rulers, as well as religious rituals and their calendric associations.
The codex is a component of the Magliabechiano Group, a set of three codices pertaining to religion and ritual that also includes the Codex Magliabechiano and the Codex Tudela, as well as parts of Crónica de la Nueva España by Francisco Cervantes de Salazar. While other well-known post-colonial Aztec codices mostly document native life in Tenochtitlan, the largest city in the Aztec empire and the one that would eventually develop into the modern-day capitol of Mexico City, much of the content of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl is associated with life in Texcoco and offers a more diverse perspective on day-to-day living in other Aztec regions. While the driving force behind the creation of Spanish-commissioned codices was to serve as aid in converting natives to Catholicism and exterminating the Aztec religion and culture, the Codex Ixtlilxochitl is a tribute to the complex relationship between the colonists and the natives and how that relationship eventually resulted in enough preservation of native practices for historians to have access to a significant wealth of knowledge pertaining to Aztec culture.
After the codex's arrival in Europe and its application to Spanish census questionnaires, it passed through the hands of various Mexican and European historians and collectors before eventually coming into the possession of Mexican-French collector and philanthropist E. Eugene Goupil. Following Goupil's death in 1895, his estate donated the codex to the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, where it continues to reside today. The pages of the codex bear the cataloguing stamps of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Goupil's extensive personal library, as well as page numbers inscribed early in the codex's circulation by previous owners.
The first section, which comprises folios 94–104, is an artist's copy of an earlier calendrical documentation of revered deities and holidays that occurred at Texcoco's Great Teocalli, or ceremonial temple. The preceding manuscript, known as the Magliabechiano Prototype, was made between 1529 and 1553 but was later lost and is preserved in part within the first section of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl. The codex's containment of this prototype is what cements it as a component of the Magliabechiano Group, which are associated together as they all contain copies of the lost prototype.
The aspects of the prototype preserved in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl present the solar Xiuhpohualli calendar, which is a 365-day calendar consisting of 18 months of 20 days called veintenas in Spanish or mētztli in Nahuatl, as well as each month's associated feast. At the end of the 18 months is a 5-day period called the nemontemi, which were considered to be "unlucky" days separated from the rest of the calendar, during which many day-to-day activities were abstained from at the risk of attracting bad luck or misfortune. Each folio represents a month with a pictogram, ranging from the month Atlcahualo's human figure representative to the month Tozoztontli's garment representative to animal and building and food representatives. Beneath each pictogram is commentary written by Spanish historians from around 1600. Also included in this section of the codex are descriptions of two mortuary rituals.
Consisting of folios 105–112, this section contains a compilation of illustrations intended to accompany Juan Bautista Pomar's 1577 manuscript Relación de Texcoco, a commissioned census made in response to the Relaciones geográficas questionnaire distributed to the colonies under the rule of King Philip II of Spain as a component of the reforms mandated by the 1573 Ordenanzas. The questionnaires consisted of an elaborate collection of surveys sent to Spanish colonies intended to facilitate a deeper understanding of native culture, religion, and lifestyle practices to more effectively commission government systems. The response included in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl was completed in 1582, and contains six ornately illustrated images as well as written Spanish annotations.
In this section, the European influence on Native depictions of deities and rulers within codices is most evident; the figures are rendered with accurate proportions and realistic expressions, and care is taken with anatomical shading in order to create a lifelike image. The first illustration depicts the Aztec emperor or tlatoani Ixtlilxochitl Ome Tochtli, more commonly known as Ixtlilxochitl I, who ruled the altepatl of Texcoco from 1409 to 1418, prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. The folio's illustration depicts him standing upright in regal garb, wearing an elaborately woven textile cloak and holding an arrow in his left hand and a ceremonial floral and feathered scepter in his right hand. Ixtlilxochitl I is regarded as slightly infamous in the context of Texcoco's history; under his rule Texcoco was lost in battle to Tenochtitlan and would not be reclaimed until the reign of his son, the famed "poet-king" Nezahualcoyotl.
Nezahualcoyotl himself is next depicted in this section of the codex, and in keeping with the altepatl's history, he is shown fully costumed for battle. The artist depicts him with a menacing grimace, and utilized carefully applied gold leaf on his calf guards and arm bands to establish the illustration as especially regal. Holding an obsidian-edged sword, or macuahuitl, and bearing a feathered shield and armor, one can imagine Nezahualcoyotl taking to the battlefield to avenge his father, successfully reclaim his throne, and eventually rebuild Texcoco to its former glory.
The third image is a second depiction of Ixtlilxochitl I; this illustration is slightly more modest in terms of scale, color saturation, and detail, but the king's snail shell patterned cloak and ceremonial incense burner continue to exemplify the full breadth of Aztec ceremonial regalia.
The fourth picture illustrates the tlatoani Nezahualpilli, son of Nezahualcoyotl, and is likely the most referenced and recognizable folio of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl as a whole thanks to its depiction of Nezahualpilli's elaborately patterned xiuhtlalpiltilmatl, or "turquoise-tied-mantle," about which there is a degree of controversy surrounding the material with which the cloak was made. Shown also with gold-leaf arm and calf bands, a maxtlatl, or loincloth bearing the same pattern as the mantle, and feathered incense holders, the image depicts Nezahualpilli in a way visually characteristic to his reputation of being a fair, peaceful ruler; alongside that, according to Aztec legends he had divinatory gifts and predicted the arrival of the conquistadors and subsequent fall of the Aztec Empire under Montezuma II's reign.
The fifth image diverges from the depiction of emperors of Texcoco, and instead is an ornate illustration of the rain god Tlaloc. Tlaloc, who had jurisdiction over agricultural fertility and crop outcomes, was one of the most significant and revered gods in Aztec religion and culture, and is depicted in this folio wearing his usual unique fanged mask and holding a lightning bolt in his right hand and a feathered shield in his left.
Finally, the sixth image illustrates Texcoco's great teocalli, the double-templed pyramid at which many religious ceremonies and cultural events took place. This specific depiction of the teocalli is often used in reference to Tenochtitlan's Templo Mayor, possibly due to its academic clarity in terms of the artist's usage of line and color, but is in fact Texcoco's equivalent of Tenochtitlan's teocalli. Most Aztec cities possessed a grand central temple for ceremonial usage, and the comparability of Texcoco's and Tenochtitlan's teocallis has a tendency to confuse historians and casual observers despite the fact that they were two entirely different temples.
Folios 113-122 are an assembly of unillustrated notes and textual analyses regarding the Aztec ceremonial calendar outlined visually in the first section of the codex. Thought to be written by de Alva Cortez Ixtlilxochitl himself to aid the European understanding of Aztec ritualistic practices and their calendrical associations, the text is simply formatted, written entirely in Spanish, and echos much of the written Spanish annotations found in the first section of the codex in a more comprehensive fashion, as well as sharing similarities with other written accounts of Aztec calendars by other European historians and census writers.