Codex Zouche-Nuttall

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Codex Zouche-Nuttall
Codex Zouche-Nuttall, page 20.jpg
Detail of page 20 from the codex
MaterialAnimal skin
Size11.35 metres in length
Created14th-15th Centuries AD
Present location British Museum, London
RegistrationAdd MS 39671

The Codex Zouche-Nuttall or Codex Tonindeye is an accordion-folded pre-Columbian document of Mixtec pictography, now in the collections of the British Museum. It is one of about 16 manuscripts from Mexico that are entirely pre-Columbian in origin. The codex derives its name from Zelia Nuttall, who first published it in 1902, and Baroness Zouche, its donor. [1] [2]

Contents

Description

The Codex Zouche-Nuttall was probably made in the 14th century and is composed of 47 sections of animal skin with dimensions of 19 cm by 23.5 cm. The codex folds together like a screen and is vividly painted on both sides, [3] and the condition of the document is by and large excellent. It is one of three codices that record the genealogies, alliances and conquests of several 11th and 12th century rulers of a small Mixtec city-state in highland Oaxaca, the Tilantongo kingdom, especially under the leadership of the warrior Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw [4] (who died in the early twelfth century at the age of fifty-two). [5]

Provenance

Two pages of the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, as displayed at the British Museum in 2008 Codex Zouche-Nuttall 01 (cropped).jpg
Two pages of the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, as displayed at the British Museum in 2008

The codex probably reached Spain in the 16th century. It was first identified at the Monastery of San Marco, Florence, in 1854 and was sold in 1859 to John Temple Leader who sent it to his friend Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche. A facsimile was published while it was in the collection of Baron Zouche by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard in 1902, with an introduction by Zelia Nuttall (18571933). The British Museum was loaned the manuscript in 1876 and acquired it in 1917.

Ballcourt in the Codex Nuttall. Drawing by Lacambalam. Ballcourt in the Coddex Nuttall. Drawing by Lacambalam..jpg
Ballcourt in the Codex Nuttall. Drawing by Lacambalam.

See also

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