An Introduction to pre-Hispanic Mixtec Codices

Mixtec speakers inhabit a vast territory of broad mountain ranges and small valleys that stretch across the modern-day states of Puebla, Guerrero and Oaxaca (pic 1). Artisans in the region are renowned for their skilled work with gold and stone as well as their stucco sculptures and polychrome pottery. And, of course, they created pre-Hispanic codices.
All these examples of Mixtec art date back to the Postclassic, a period between the tenth and sixteenth centuries when political centres proliferated, filling the vacuum left after the collapse of large cities established in preceding centuries. However, these new entities still retained the commercial and political dynamism of their precursors. The Mixtec codices record the founding of important towns and señoríos (local chiefdoms) from at least 940 CE, and thus constitute a vital source of information about how historical events unfolded in this part of Mesoamerica.

Pic 1: Panoramic view of Yagul, Oaxaca

The Mixtec rulers considered themselves the children or descendants of gods, who would generally have had a hand in their creation; marital alliances between ruling families (pic 3) helped preserve the purity of their divine ancestry. This sacredness gave special ruling powers to the yya (Mixtec for ‘king’ or ‘lord’), and therefore he was the only individual who could possess the symbols of power and act as a direct link to the gods. The codices also tell us about the wars waged between the main chiefdoms in the region - principally Tilantongo, Teozacoalco, Jaltepec, Tlaxiaco, Tututepec, Achiutlia, Apoala, Suchixtlan, and Yanhuitlan. They also clearly serve the purpose of legitimisation, through the careful recording of the names of the rulers’ fathers, sons and other descendants, as well as the names of places of origin of the parents and grandparents of the women who married the lord of a specific lineage. The codices therefore performed a social function by conjoining the various families of the most influential ruling groups within a region that might be controlled by a powerful overlord.

Pic 3: The marriage between Lady 3-Flint and Lord 12-Wind at the Hill of the Cicada - possibly present-day Monte Negro, near Tilantongo. Codex Zouche-Nuttall pls. 19-20 (detail)

We do know that the Codex Zouche-Nuttall turned up in Florence in the San Marco Dominican monastery library (pic 5) in 1854, perhaps taken there by a friar from that religious order. Even less is known about the Codices Bodley and Selden before both were deposited in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England. The Selden belonged to the humanist scholar John Selden, while in the early seventeenth century the Bodley passed into the possession of Thomas Bodley, the learned book collector and founder of the aforesaid library named in his honour. The Colombino and Becker I are the only codices whose story is beginning to become clear. They form part of a single manuscript that was separated around the 1530s or 1540s. They have since been conserved as independent documents. We know that the Codex Colombino belonged to the caciques of the town of Tututepec up until the first half of the eighteenth century.

Pic 5: The library at the Dominican convent of San Marco, designed by Michelozzo and thought to be the first ‘public’ library in Renaissance Europe

The Codex Becker I was long thought to have belonged to the lawyer Pascual Almazán before the German merchant Philipp Joseph Becker acquired it. But recent research indicates that the real owner of the codex around 1855 was Manuel Cardoso who, as we saw earlier, also had the Codex Colombino in his collection. Apparently Becker bought the manuscript after Cardoso’s death and took it along with his other antiquities to his house in Darmstadt, Germany. After Becker died the collection was acquired by Georg Haas, who donated it to the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

Writing techniques and variations in style
The six Mixtec codices are remarkable due to the diversity, colour of the shapes and tracery [fine patterns] that bring their glyphs to life. Each sheet is divided vertically or horizontally by red lines which help to guide readers and to define the composition of the figures or scenes. Depending on the codex, these either direct the reader from right to left (pic 7) or vice-versa.

Pic 7: Codex Vindobonensis pl 42: the vertical red lines guide the reader in a single direction - from right to left starting bottom right. Shown are a series of toponyms in geographical sequence

No precise dates can be given for the creation of the pre-Hispanic codices of the Mixtec Alta. However, I propose that the obverse of the Codex Zouche-Nuttall was probably related to the need for Eight Deer’s descendants to legitimise their ancestry in the early fourteenth century, since the ruler’s direct lineage had come to an end with the death of the last ruler of the second dynasty of Tilantongo in 1341. Although no conclusive evidence places the Codex Zouche-Nuttall in the fourteenth century, we can say that the painting style in fashion by the sixteenth century is completely different to that of this codex and also quite unlike the Colombino’s. I am referring to the style of the Bodley, the Selden and other documents produced well into the sixteenth century. Some years ago, Mary Elizabeth Smith studied the stylistic details of the Mixtec codices and divided them into four groups according to their similarities: the Codices Zouche-Nuttall and Vindobonensis; the Colombino-Becker; the Bodley, Selden and Becker II; and the Sánchez Solís or Egerton. The Bodley-Selden-Becker II subgroup was made well into the sixteenth century, while the Zouche-Nuttall-Vindobonensis subgroup could be the oldest. The Sánchez-Solís or Egerton (pic 9) was painted in the mid-sixteenth century.

Pic 9: The 16th-century Codex Egerton, fol. 25 - a unique Mixtec genealogical document in that each of the major (ruling) couples occupies a full page

It is impossible to give a precise place of origin for the Bodley-Selden-Becker II style, though it has been suggested that the Codex Bodley was painted in the chiefdom of Tilantongo. Thus it would not be far-fetched to suppose that one of the main political and ideological centres of the Mixteca Alta was also one of the most influential centres of artistic innovation in the entire Mixtec region. According to M.E. Smith, the Codex Becker II may also have come from the Mixteca Baja, as the same style was present in both subregions. Thus, the prevailing style in the codices produced throughout the sixteenth century can be said to have originated in the Mixteca’s great political and ideological centre: Tilantongo (pic 11).

* NOTE: In recent years several pre-Hispanic codices have been given more authentic names, based on the localities whose stories they tell. These include:-
• Códice Añute (Codex Selden)
• Códice Tonindeye (Codex Zouche-Nuttall
• Códice Ñuu Tnoo Ndisi Nuu or Tilantongo y Tlaxiaco (Codex Bodley).

Pic 11: Map showing Tilantongo at the centre of the the Mixtec territories of Mexico. Pre-Classic areas are marked with a triangle, round dots mark Classic sites and Post Classic sites are marked with a square