Codex Aubin

Codex Aubin
Public domain · source
Name	Codex Aubin
Date	1576–1600
Place	Mexico City, Altiplano Central
Language	Classical Nahuatl with Spanish annotations
Material	European paper, ink, pigments
Size	folio
Current location	British Museum (part), Bibliothèque nationale de France (part)

Codex Aubin is a post-conquest colonial-era manuscript combining annals, pictorials, and prose chronicles that narrate the migration, conquest, and settlement history of central Mexican polities. It integrates indigenous Nahua calendrical records, pictography, and Spanish glosses tied to institutions such as the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Audiencia of New Spain, and convents near Mexico City.

Description and Physical Characteristics

The manuscript comprises multiple folios produced on European paper with iron gall ink, mineral pigments, and amate-style pictorial conventions, comparable to materials used in the Florentine Codex, Lienzo de Tlaxcala, and Codex Mendoza. Leaves display a hybrid layout of indigenous pictography beside alphabetic Nahuatl texts written in a Latin script used by Franciscan and Augustinian scribes active in the 16th century. The binding and watermark evidence link it to paper supplies circulating through port hubs such as Seville, Antwerp, and Mexico City during the era of the Spanish Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy.

Historical Context and Authorship

Composed in the decades following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the manuscript is attributed to Nahua informants and local tlacuiloque working with mestizo scribes under the oversight of indigenous elites like calpulli and altepetl authorities. Its creation intersects with institutions including the Catholic Church, College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, and municipal cabildos responding to petitions before the Council of the Indies and the Royal Council. The work reflects interactions among figures connected to the Conquest of Mexico, survivors of the Noche Triste, and veterans associated with families tied to the Triple Alliance.

Content and Structure

The codex combines annalistic year-by-year entries, migration itineraries from Aztlan to the Basin of Mexico, and accounts of sieges, alliances, and tribute lists, integrating narratives akin to those in the Anales de Tlatelolco, Bodleian Aztec Manuscripts, and Relaciónes geográficas. It includes pictorial maps of routes, lists of rulers and tlatoani with ties to the Mexica, Tepanec, and Acolhua polities, and episodes describing confrontations with forces linked to the Spanish Crown and specific conquistadors associated with Hernán Cortés and contemporaries. The structure presents synthetic chronologies that correspond to systems used in prehispanic codices like the Codex Boturini and colonial compilations such as works commissioned by officials in the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

Language, Script, and Artistic Style

Primary text is in Classical Nahuatl rendered in Latin orthography influenced by scribal practices taught at institutions like the Franciscan convents and the University of Salamanca-educated clergy. Pictorial elements employ glyphic conventions for calendrical signs, place-name toponymy, and glyphs for rulers similar to imagery in the Codex Borbonicus and Codex Telleriano-Remensis. Color palette and iconography reflect a syncretism visible in manuscripts connected to the Guaman Poma de Ayala tradition and in visual production associated with workshops servicing mestizo and indigenous patrons in New Spain.

Transmission, Provenance, and Editions

The manuscript’s custody history involves transfer from Nahua families and ecclesiastical repositories in Mexico City to collectors and institutions in Europe, passing through agents in Seville and collectors associated with the British Museum and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Early scholarly attention connects it to 19th-century antiquarians, collectors linked to the Real Academia de la Historia, and cataloguers working with Alexander von Humboldt-era collections. Modern critical editions and facsimiles have been produced by scholars working in tandem with archives such as the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and university presses in Mexico, France, and the United Kingdom.

Historical Significance and Scholarly Interpretation

Researchers situate the manuscript as a primary source for reconstructing Nahua perspectives on migration myths, imperial formation of the Triple Alliance, tribute systems, and responses to colonial institutions including the Casa de Contratación and viceroyal administration. Its annalistic method has been compared with the work of historians editing the Anales de Tlatelolco and commentators on the Florentine Codex, informing debates about indigenous agency, memory, and legal testimony before colonial courts such as the Audiencia of Mexico. Contemporary scholarship from departments at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Harvard University, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales emphasizes provenance research, paleography, and interdisciplinary approaches linking ethnohistory, codicology, and art history.

Category:16th-century manuscripts Category:Nahua codices Category:Aztec codices