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| Codex Fejérváry-Mayer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Codex Fejérváry-Mayer |
| Caption | Folio from the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer |
| Date | Postclassic period (c. 1400–1521) |
| Place | Central Mexico, likely Puebla–Veracruz region |
| Language | Nahuatl pictorial-logographic notation |
| Material | Animal hide (deer skin) and pigments |
| Current location | Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico City) / private collections (historical) |
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer is a Postclassic Mesoamerican pictorial manuscript associated with the Mixtec and Nahua cultural spheres from central Mexico, notable for divinatory and calendrical content. The codex is an accordion-fold screenfold executed on animal hide with richly colored pigments, linked to indigenous ritual practice and later European contact contexts such as the Spanish conquest and colonial administration.
The manuscript manifests as an accordion-fold screenfold comparable to the structural formats of Codex Borgia, Codex Borbonicus, Codex Mendoza, Codex Nuttall, and Codex Cospi, produced on deerskin prepared using techniques attested in Mesoamerica and regions influenced by Teotihuacan and Tula. Its dimensions approximate other screenfolds like Sahagún's Florentine Codex in scale and comprise painted recto and verso sequences reminiscent of the layout found in Codex Madrid and Codex Vaticanus B. Pigments correspond to palettes comparable to works in the collections of the Museo Nacional de Antropología and the British Museum, with mineral and organic sources paralleling those used in artifacts from Monte Albán and Cholula. The codex's iconographic registers read horizontally and vertically, with calendrical signs analogous to the Tonalpohualli and iconography resonant with images from Huexotzinco and Tlaxcala.
Scholars situate the manuscript within the fluid cultural zone between Puebla and the Gulf lowlands, locales implicated in exchange networks involving Xicotepec, Veracruz, and Papantla. European encounters such as the expeditions of Hernán Cortés, the administrative reforms of New Spain, and the missionary activities tied to figures like Bernardino de Sahagún shaped the dispersal and collection histories of similar screenfolds. The codex later entered European collections in the 18th and 19th centuries alongside objects associated with collectors like Ludwig von Ranke and dealers connected to the British Museum and Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Its name reflects collectors and antiquarians active in the period of Hungarian and German antiquarian exchange, paralleling trajectories of codices that passed through collections linked to Ferenc Fejérváry-era networks and collectors aligned with institutions such as the Austrian National Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The pictorial sequences include divinatory almanacs, ritual sequences, deity portrayals, and calendrical correlations comparable to sections of the Codex Borgia corpus and thematic parallels in Mixtec codices such as Codex Zouche-Nuttall. Deities and supernatural figures depicted relate to the pan-Mesoamerican pantheon exemplified by Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, Xipe Totec, and iconographic motifs known from Chalchiuhtlicue imagery and regional manifestations like those in El Tajín. Calendrical notations engage the 260-day cycle found in the Tonalpohualli and incorporate day signs comparable to those in the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I and Codex Vaticanus B. Scenes suggest ritual prescriptions for ceremonies analogous to accounts in the Florentine Codex and the ritual manuals associated with priestly lineages recorded in documents related to Tlaxcala and Tenochtitlan. Glyphic labels and personified day-signs echo stylistic elements present in manuscripts linked to Mixtec codices and iconography found at archaeological sites like Cempoala.
Stylistically, the codex synthesizes border motifs and figure conventions seen in Valdivia-era traditions and later Postclassic aesthetics documented at Cacaxtla and Xochicalco, while sharing pigments and binding techniques with artifacts conserved at the Museo del Templo Mayor. Artists employed mineral pigments such as cinnabar and azurite and organic blacks comparable to works in the Codex Mendoza and material studies from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The representational language aligns with Mixtec-Nahua pictorial canons similar to those at Yanhuitlán and illustrated dynastic histories like the Codex Colombino-Becker, suggesting workshops with affinities to scribal and artisan groups operating in marketplaces documented in chronicles by Diego Durán and Francisco Hernández.
Conservation treatments mirror those applied to other pre-Hispanic manuscripts preserved by institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Antropología, the British Museum, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, involving humidity control and pigment consolidation protocols developed in collaboration with laboratories linked to the Getty Conservation Institute and universities like Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. The manuscript's exhibition history includes displays in thematic shows alongside artifacts from Museo del Templo Mayor, comparative exhibitions curated with loans from the Museo Nacional de Antropología and transnational projects involving the Smithsonian Institution and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Provenance research engaged archives such as those of the Austrian National Library and collectors associated with the Hungarian antiquarian market.
Academic engagement with the codex spans iconographic analysis, calendar studies, and ethnohistoric comparison drawing on methodologies used by scholars affiliated with institutions like the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Institute of Ethnology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and departments at the University of Oxford and Harvard University. Interpretations have compared its structure to the ritual treatises cataloged by Bernardino de Sahagún and the pictorial grammars reconstructed by researchers at the School of American Research and the Museo Nacional de Antropología. Debates concern regional attribution, the interplay of Mixtec and Nahua conventions, and the codex's role in postconquest identity formations studied alongside documents from Tlaxcala, colonial chronicles by Hernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, and comparative manuscripts like Codex Aubin. Ongoing digital humanities projects at institutions such as the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the Getty Research Institute aim to refine pigment analysis and codicological readings, incorporating methods developed in collaborations with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and computational teams at Stanford University.