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| Codex Telleriano-Remensis | |
|---|---|
| Name | Codex Telleriano-Remensis |
| Date | 16th century (post-conquest) |
| Place of origin | New Spain |
| Language | Nahuatl, Spanish glosses |
| Material | European paper, indigenous pigments |
| Size | manuscript atlas, 95 folios (approx.) |
| Current location | Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits |
Codex Telleriano-Remensis. The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is a 16th-century pictorial manuscript from New Spain that combines indigenous Mesoamerican pictography with European materials and annotations. It functions as an ethnographic atlas, calendrical handbook, and historical chronicle, citing ritual cycles, genealogies, and colonial events linked to places and persons across central Mesoamerica. The manuscript informed early modern encounters between Nahua elites, Spanish clergy, and officials in the wake of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
The codex is executed on European rag paper with folios bound in a modern album format, featuring indigenous pigments and Spanish ink annotations attributed to scribes and clergy active in Mexico City and nearby altepetl such as Texcoco, Tenochtitlan, and Tlaxcala. Its dimensions and folio count place it among other post-conquest pictorials like the Codex Mendoza, the Boturini Codex, and the Florentine Codex. Folios display painted calendrical wheels, ritual almanacs, and sequential annals rendered with mica-like mineral pigments reminiscent of works preserved in repositories such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico). Binding and foliation evidence indicate early handling by collectors associated with European diplomatic networks, including families with ties to the Spanish Empire and the French royal library.
Produced in the decades after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the manuscript reflects the entanglement of Nahua elites, mendicant orders like the Franciscans and the Dominican Order, and colonial bureaucrats of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Its transmission includes custodians connected to the Tellería family and the Remensis (Reims) collection, with later acquisition by collectors associated with the Bibliothèque nationale de France during the reign of Louis XV and archival movements influenced by events such as the French Revolution. Earlier custodial moments likely involved indigenous notaries and tlacuiloque (painter-scribes) who interfaced with institutions including the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico and the Council of Indies.
The manuscript is organized into thematic sections: ritual calendars (the xiuhpōhualli and tonalpohualli cycles), a series of year-sign annals recording births, deaths, famines, and rebellions, and genealogical or tribute-related sheets that map landholding and noble lineages tied to altepetl. It juxtaposes pictorial year glyphs with Spanish-language glosses and glosses reminiscent of documents submitted to bodies like the Audiencia of New Spain or archives of the Casa de Contratación. Comparable organizational schemes are observable in the Codex Vaticanus 3773 and the Codex Boturini, yet this manuscript uniquely integrates colonial chronologies with ritual prognostication used by Nahua priests to address events such as epidemics and uprisings in the period following the Sack of Tenochtitlan.
Iconography synthesizes pre-Hispanic motifs—deities such as Tlaloc, Huitzilopochtli, and calendar personifications—with European compositional techniques and marginalia introduced by clergy and officials. Figures are rendered with the linearity and iconographic lexicon shared by tlacuiloque workshops in Texcoco and Coyoacán, while color palettes show mineral and vegetable pigments comparable to those in the Codex Borbonicus. Scene composition includes town-view glyphs, liturgical scenes, and battle representations echoing historical episodes like skirmishes involving Tlaxcalan allies and Spanish forces under contingents associated with figures such as Hernán Cortés. Intermixed are emblems of colonial institutions, seals, and annotations reflecting interaction with ecclesiastical authorities like the Archdiocese of Mexico.
Textual material combines Nahuatl ideographic-pictorial notation with alphabetic Spanish glosses, showing the bilingual administrative milieu of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Calendrical systems depicted include the 260-day tonalpohualli and the 365-day xiuhpōhualli, alongside year-bearer glyphs used to anchor annals to European years, an approach mirrored in colonial legal petitions and Indigenous testimonies submitted to the Tribunal de Indias. The manuscript thus functions as both a ritual manual for Nahua divination and a documentary instrument intelligible to Spanish officials conversant with Nahua informants and translators associated with institutions such as the Casa de la Contratación.
Scholars from fields including ethnohistory, art history, and Mesoamerican studies have debated its dating, authorship, and use, with notable contributions from researchers working at institutions like the Institute of History (UNAM), the Smithsonian Institution, and university presses in Cambridge and Princeton. Comparative analysis links the codex to regional chronicle traditions, colonial legal contexts, and ritual continuities revealed in the work of historians studying sources such as the Florentine Codex and archival collections at the Archivo General de Indias. Interpretations vary on whether the manuscript primarily served Nahua ritual specialists, Spanish ecclesiastical reformers, or bilingual native elites negotiating rights before colonial courts like the Audiencia de México.
The principal surviving manuscript resides in the manuscript collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, where conservation treatments address issues of paper acidity, pigment flaking, and previous restorations. Facsimile editions and photographic reproductions have circulated through academic presses in London, Paris, and Mexico City, enabling access for researchers at institutions such as the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the British Museum. Ongoing digitization projects and collaborative conservation initiatives involve curators, conservators, and scholars affiliated with repositories including the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Getty Research Institute.
Category:16th-century manuscripts