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Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 2
Lesson 13: MixtecMixtec: Codex Zouche-Nuttall
This is one of a small number of known Mexican codices (screenfold manuscript books) dating to pre-Hispanic times. It is made of deer skin and comprises 47 leaves.
The powerful ruler Eight Deer Jaguar-Claw can be seen here (above), sitting on a throne with his name next to him (8 circles and a deer's head).
The Zouche-Nuttall Codex contains two narratives: one side of the document relates the history of important centres in the Mixtec region, while the other, starting at the opposite end, records the genealogy, marriages and political and military feats of the Mixtec ruler, Eight Deer Jaguar-Claw. This ruler is depicted at top center, next to his calendric name (8 circles and a deer's head). It was made by the Mixtec people, some of whom joined the Aztec empire. It uses a kind of picture-writing showing important Mixtec events, with special signs for names and dates.
Very few Mesoamerican pictorial documents have survived destruction and it is not clear how the Codex Zouche-Nuttall reached Europe. In 1859 it turned up in a Dominican monastery in Florence. Years later, Sir Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche (1810-73), loaned it to The British Museum. His books and manuscripts were inherited by his sister, who donated the Codex to the Museum in 1917. The Codex was first published by Zelia Nuttall in 1902.
Suggested readings:
E.H. Boone, Stories in red and black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs (Austin, University of Texas Press, 2000).
Z. Nuttall, Facsimile of an Ancient Mexican Codex Belonging to Lord Zouche of Harynworth, England (Cambridge, Mass., Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 1902).
G. Brotherstone, Painted books of Mexico (London, The British Museum Press, 1995).
C. McEwan, Ancient Mexico in the British (London, The British Museum Press, 1994).
F. Anders, M. Jansen and G. A. Pérez Jiménez, Códice Zouche-Nuttall, facsimile with commentary and line drawing (Madrid, Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario; Graz, Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt; Mexico City, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992).
© Trustees of the British Museum
Want to join the conversation?
- In the entire codex why are some men painted red, others black, and some white? Are these depictions of three separate races?
Connie(13 votes)- We don't know this, but this is an interesting idea. They may have been depicting figures from different areas or villages. We do know that ancient priests would wear black paint, so the figures that appear to be painted black are priestly figures.(8 votes)
- Do we know when this codex was written?(5 votes)
- Somewhere between 1200 and 1500 but we don't know for sure.(1 vote)
- If the Mixtec people had their own civilization, why did some people go on to join the Aztec?(2 votes)
- Can you translate what the drawings mean?(2 votes)
- If the men in black are priests, do the men in white and red have other religious titles?(2 votes)
- Is the codices read each differently, or all the same? And if so, do you read them the British and American and other countries, left to right and top to bottom. Or perhaps a unique Aztec way of doing it?(2 votes)
- I noticed there are many different animals with extraordinary colors and shapes. Are these actual animals that roamed in the pre-Hispanic times?(1 vote)
- what are the things in the codex were they animals(1 vote)
- Is there any writing in the Aztec codices, or is it all pictorial?(1 vote)
- Do all the drawings make only one or many sentences?(1 vote)