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Instructions:
Answer all parts of the required questions.
Reply to at least 1 other classmate before the due date.
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 Answer all parts of the questions in complete sentences.

A short history of Codex Mendoza. 

Among the primary pictorial manuscripts for Aztec Central Mexico, the Codex Mendoza is certainly one of the crown jewels. Commissioned and compiled circa 1541-42, during the administration of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, the codex consists of native-style, handsomely-colored pictorial scenes on European paper, recording important information about Aztec/Mexica imperial history, economic organization, and society. It was commissioned by royal officials (it is not entirely clear if Viceroy Mendoza or officials in Spain initiated the project), and executed by Indian scribes and informants who still had first-hand knowledge of pre-conquest conditions twenty years after the fall of Tenochtitlan.

The original purpose of the Codex Mendoza seems to have been to provide royal policymakers with reliable information about the functioning of the former Aztec empire now controlled by the Spaniards. Beyond its practical value to the Spanish, the antiquarian value of the codex to modern scholars is immense, since two-thirds of the document may have been copied directly from pre-Hispanic pictorial sources. If so, then this is a truly amazing survival since such pre-Hispanic codices were all but completely destroyed during the extirpation campaigns waged by the first bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumarraga. Hastily finished before the departure of the semi-annual flotilla back to Spain, the codex was captured along with other goods and riches bound for the Spanish king by French corsairs in the Caribbean, and thence was deposited with the French royal cosmographer Andre Thevet–whose autograph and annotations are copiously present on the text.

The codex itself was divided into three distinct sections. Part One, “the conquest section,” is a history of the Mexica kings from the founding of Tenochtitlan to the arrival of the Spanish. For each king’s reign, a standard “annals” format was employed by native artists: Native-style year glyphs run along the margins of an initial page (corresponding to his years of rule), followed by a series of place-glyphs pierced by flaming-spears (representing the towns and regions captured during his military campaigns). Part Two, “the tribute section,” is an account of the provinces which owed tribute to the Mexica kings. Again a standardized format is employed by the native artists with each page corresponding to a distinct tribute-paying region: Place-glyphs of the towns within each tribute province are drawn along the left and lower margins of the page, while the type and quantity of tribute paid during the year are represented by images of tribute goods with Spanish glosses. Like its sister-document the Matricula de Tributos, Part Two of the Codex Mendoza provided the Spanish with practical information about Aztec tribute patterns and levels that served as a guide and yardstick for their own tribute-collection activities. The third part of the Codex Mendoza, “the daily-life section,” contains ethnographic data pertaining to the life cycle of individuals from birth to marriage (fs. 57r-61r), as well as about the various occupations of priests, warriors and other professions. While Parts One and Two seem to have been copied from extant native pictorial manuscripts, the third section was added specifically for the codex.

Citation: John A. Crider. Review of Berdan, Frances F.; Anawalt, Patricia Rieff, The Essential Codex Mendoza. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. October, 1997.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1359

For the original document found in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library click >>>> here (Links to an external site.)

1. What is the title of codex?  Who commissioned the work? When was the work commissioned?
2. Who is the author of the work? What is the original purpose of the codex?  How did the French get a hold of the codex?
3. Why is this work a primary source? 
4. Describe the image. How is this image related to the Mexicas/Aztecs origin story? What do you think the eagle represents?  
5. Reply to one classmate.