The Codex Mendoza

Abstract

This four-volume facsimile edition of "Codex Mendoza" includes illustrated documents of Aztec civilization. Compiled in Mexico City around 1541 under the supervision of Spanish clerics, the "Codex" was intended to inform King Charles V about his newly conquered subjects. The manuscript contains pictorial accounts of Aztec emperors' conquests and tribute paid by the conquered, as well as a remarkable ethnographic record of Aztec daily life from cradle to grave. This four-colume publication is a source of information about Aztec history, geography, economy, social and political organization, glyphic writing, costumes, textiles, military attire and indegenous art styles. Volume 1 contains interpretive essays by the authors and other leading specialists on every aspect of "Codex Mendoza". Volume 2 offers a description and discussion of each pictorial page, and volume 3 is a complete colour facsimile of the manuscript itself. Volume 4, a parallel image volume, provides an exact duplicate in black and white of the facsmile. Volume 3, with the 16th-century Spanish text transcribed and then translated into English. In addition, all the glosses are translated and positioned exactly as on the original pictorial pages. The appendices add such things as pictorial charts of costumes and textiles, translations and discussions of all the glyphs in the codex, and a table of comparative chronologies.