page_title: Aztec codices
hierarchical_section_title: Aztec codices
caption_attribution_description: Español: Tenochtitlan. Tierra del nopal. Entrada de Hernan Cortes, la cual se verifico el 8 de Noviembre de 1519 English: Tenochtitlan, Entrance of Hernan Cortes. Cortez and La Malinche meet Moctezuma II. , November 8, 1519 The imasge is from the "Lienzo de Tlaxcala", created by the Tlaxcalans to remind the Spanish of their loyalty to Castile and the importance of Tlaxcala during the Conquest. The text mixes European and native styles and includes anachronisms, such as the European-style chairs included in this image.
context_page_description: Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Nahuas in pictorial and/or alphabetic form.
  Before the Spanish Conquest the Aztec and their neighbors in and around the Valley of Mexico relied on painted books and records to document almost all aspects of their lives. Painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. After the Conquest, the Aztec continued to think and express themselves visually, and the Spaniards came to accept and rely on the painted manuscripts as valid and potentially important records. The native tradition of pictorial documentation and expression continued strongly in the Valley of Mexico several generations after the arrival of Europeans. The latest examples of this tradition reaching into the early seventeenth century.
  Aztec codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture. The pre-Columbian codices mostly do not in fact use the codex form and are, or originally were, long folded sheets. These sheets were typically made from stretched deerskin or from the fibers of the agave plant.
context_section_description: Aztec codices (Nahuatl languages: Mēxihcatl āmoxtli [meːˈʃiʔkatɬ aːˈmoʃtɬi]) are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Nahuas in pictorial and/or alphabetic form.  
  Before the Spanish Conquest the Aztec and their neighbors in and around the Valley of Mexico relied on painted books and records to document almost all aspects of their lives. Painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. After the Conquest, the Aztec continued to think and express themselves visually, and the Spaniards came to accept and rely on the painted manuscripts as valid and potentially important records. The native tradition of pictorial documentation and expression continued strongly in the Valley of Mexico several generations after the arrival of Europeans. The latest examples of this tradition reaching into the early seventeenth century.  
  Aztec codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture. The pre-Columbian codices mostly do not in fact use the codex form (that of a modern paperback) and are, or originally were, long folded sheets. These sheets were typically made from stretched deerskin or from the fibers of the agave plant. They also differ from European books in that they mostly consist of images and pictograms; they were not meant to symbolize spoken or written narratives. 
  Particularly important colonial-era codices that are published with scholarly English translations are Codex Mendoza, the Florentine Codex, and the works by Diego Durán. Codex Mendoza is a mixed pictorial, alphabetic Spanish manuscript.  Of supreme importance is the Florentine Codex, a project directed by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, who drew on indigenous informants' knowledge of Aztec religion, social structure, natural history, and includes a history of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire from the Mexica viewpoint. The project resulted in twelve books, bound into three volumes, of bilingual Nahuatl/Spanish alphabetic text, with illustrations by native artists; the Nahuatl has been translated into English. Also important are the works of Dominican Diego Durán, who drew on indigenous pictorials and living informants to create illustrated texts on history and religion. 
  The colonial-era codices often contain Aztec pictograms or other pictorial elements. Some are written in alphabetic text in Classical Nahuatl (in the Latin alphabet) or Spanish, and occasionally Latin.  Some are entirely in Nahuatl without pictorial content. Although there are very few surviving prehispanic codices, the tlacuilo (codex painter) tradition endured the transition to colonial culture; scholars now have access to a body of around 500 colonial-era codices.  
  Doubtless a large number of prehispanic and colonial indigenous texts have disappeared over time; however, the large extant body of manuscripts that does survive can now be found in museums, archives, and private collections. There has been considerable scholarly work on individual codices as well as the daunting task of classification and description. A major publication project by scholars of Mesoamerican ethnohistory was brought to fruition in the 1970s, of which a large portion of the material is related to central Mexico. The four-volume Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources, Handbook of Middle American Indians has two volumes focusing on pictorial manuscripts, including a reproduction of many images of pictorials; one volume deals with publications of Mesoamerican documents found in collections, and printed religious and secular accounts; and one entirely devoted to the Relaciones geográficas. In the two volumes on pictorials, a general survey outlines the origins of Mesoamerican manuscripts, classifies them, and situates them in a regional survey. 
  The types of information in manuscripts falls into several categories: calendrical, historical, genealogical, cartographic, economic/tribute, economic/census and cadastral, and economic/property plans. A census of 434 pictorial manuscripts of all of Mesoamerica gives information on 
caption: History of Tlaxcala: Hernán Cortés and Malinche meet Moctezuma II (Tenochtitlan, Entrance of Hernan Cortes, November 8, 1519)  From the "Lienzo de Tlaxcala", created by the Tlaxcalans to remind the Spanish of their loyalty to Castile and the importance of Tlaxcala during the Conquest. The text mixes styles and includes anachronisms, such as the European-style chairs in this image. (Original: ca. 1550 AD. This facsimile published c. 1890.)
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