Codex Bodley: A Painted Chronicle from the Mixtec Highlands, Mexico (Treasures from the Bodleian Library)

by Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Perez Jimenez

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The Codex Bodley has long been recognized as one of the most important Mixtec manuscripts. Painted shortly before the Spanish Conquest of Mexico (1521), in the Mixtec region (state of Oaxaca), it is an excellent example of native Mixtec pictorial historiography in all its complexity. Because of its detailed information on genealogical relationships and dated events, it is a fundamental source for the study of precolonial Mixtec writing and history, from approximately 900 AD till the Spanish conquest (1521).

For the first time, the entire manuscript is reproduced in a handy, single volume format. The commentary, based on many years of research on this manuscript and related documents, both in archives and in the Mixtec region itself, makes it possible to read the figurative paintings as a narrative text. Beginning with the history of the manuscript the author then discusses the main characteristics of Mixtec pictography before turning to the narrative of the manuscript, in a page-by-page explanatory reading of the pictograms and their significance. Highly illustrated, this is an essential text for all readers with an interest in pre-colonial Mexican history, art, and culture.
  • ISBN10 1851240950
  • ISBN13 9781851240951
  • Publish Date 1 September 2005
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 31 July 2013
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Bodleian Library
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 96
  • Language English