Codex Mendoza
The Codex Mendoza is a aztektische illuminated manuscript , which is about 1541-1542 in order de Antonio Mendoza for the King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles V was made. In the 32.7 × 22.9 cm format, Aztec writers presented Aztec history from 1325 to 1521, tribute payments and the life of the Aztecs in their autochthonous writing system on 71 pages , supplemented by Spanish translations, commentaries and extensions.
In 1542 the manuscript was sent to Spain , but first got through pirates to France , where the French monk and traveler André Thevet (1502–1590) referred to it in his cosmography . It has been in the possession of the Bodleian Library in Oxford since 1659 (call number MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1).
The Codex Mendoza contains important information about the origins, the wars, the upbringing of children and the beliefs of the Aztecs. The pictorial writing depicting the founding legend of Tenochtitlán shows an eagle perching on a cactus with a yellow and red ribbon in its beak, the Aztec word images for smoke and flames , as a symbol of war. In later traditions the eagle holds a snake in its claws (Aubin Codex (1576), Fernando Alvarez Tezozómocs Cronica Mexicana (1598)), as it still adorns the coat of arms and the flag of Mexico today .
The Codex shows that the Aztecs symbolized the act of speaking with a cloud of air, similar to the speech bubbles in comics .
expenditure
- James Cooper Clark (Ed.): Codex Mendoza: the mexican manuscript known as the Collection of Mendoza and preserved in the Bodleian Library Oxford. 3 vols., Waterlow, London 1938
- Kurt Ross (ed.): Codex Mendoza: Aztec manuscript. Parkland, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-88059-123-7
- Frances F. Berdan: The Codex Mendoza. 4 vols. Berkeley [u. a.]: Univ. of Calif. Pr. 1992 ISBN 0-520-06234-5
- Vol. 1: Interpretation of Codex Mendoza
- Vol. 2: Description of Codex Mendoza
- Vol. 3: A facsimile reproduction of Codex Mendoza
- Vol. 4: Pictorial parallel image replicas of Codex Mendoza
literature
- Patricia Rieff Anawalt / Frances F. Berdan: The Codex Mendoza , in: Spectrum of Science , October 1992, pp. 68–81
- Ulla Karla Schmid: The tribute income of the Aztecs according to the Codex Mendoza. RG Fischer, Frankfurt (Main) 1988, ISBN 3-88323-777-9
Web links
- Image examples
- Content and description of the Codex Mendoza
- photos
- MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1 in the Bodleian Library catalog
- Codex Mendoza (Russian edition) ( Memento from June 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patricia Rieff Anawalt / Frances F. Berdan: The Codex Mendoza , in: Spectrum of Science , October 1992, pp. 68f.