Diana Magaloni

Barbara E. Mundy

Daniela Bleichmar

Frances F. Berdan

Davide Domenici

Mary E. Miller

Francesca Rosi

Jorge Gómez Tejada

Chiara Grazia

David Buti

Laura Cartechini

Francesca Gabrieli

Virginia María Lladó-Buisán

Aldo Romani

Antonio Sgamelloti

Constanza Milani

B. C. Barker Benfield

Claudia Brittenham

Todd P. Olson

Carmen Fernández-Salvador

Joanne Harwood

Lucien Sun

Conceptualizado como una contribución a la continua construcción de la identidad del Códice mendocino, el presente volumen está organizado en torno a tres ejes: el análisis material, la interpretación textual y estilística, y la recepción y transmisión del manuscrito. Los estudios de Barker Benfield y MOLAB abren una ventana hacia el entendimiento objetivo de la materialidad del manuscrito. El proceso de conservación y reencuadernamiento del Mendocino registrado por Barker Benfield ha disipado especulaciones en cuanto al método de construcción del manuscrito y sus posibles encuadernaciones previas, permitiendo que conexiones antes aceptadas, como la autoría de Francisco Gualpuyogualcal, sean reexaminadas. Asimismo, el análisis llevado a cabo por el equipo de MOLAB —liderado por Davide Domenici— ha sacado del ámbito de la especulación la naturaleza de los pigmentos del manuscrito, así como ha permitido que hipótesis interpretativas —previamente articuladas al respecto del significado de pigmentos específicos y lo estricto de su aplicación en el tlacuilolli— sean refinadas y contenidas. Si bien el color tiene significado para el tlacuilo, este no está directa y necesariamente ligado a su materialidad. A partir de estas observaciones se puede desarrollar una nueva generación de estudios interpretativos cuyas propuestas se basen en datos cada vez más certeros acerca de la naturaleza material del Mendocino. Los estudios interpretativos del manuscrito que ocupan el presente volumen representan una línea de investigación que, al considerar al manuscrito desde la perspectiva compleja de la obra de arte, bibliográfica y literaria, complementa las lecturas antropológicas e históricas que se han hecho del Mendocino en estudios anteriores. Así, los ensayos de Diana Magaloni, Daniela Bleichmar y quien escribe reconsideran el número y estilo de los artistas que crearon el manuscrito para entender tanto el proceso de creación del mismo como el lugar que este ocupa en el contexto artístico del virreinato temprano. Las decisiones que estos artistas e intelectuales toman en el Mendocino, lejos de insertarse en una relación binaria dominante-dominado, se presentan como una manifestación de los modos de pensar y ver el espacio y el tiempo en el mundo mesoamericano. Las pinturas del Mendocino —ejecutadas a manera de taller en donde uno, dos o más individuos intervienen en una misma página para crear de manera sincronizada una sola composición, tal como demuestra quien escribe— toman visos de ritualidad y funcionan como "instrumento para re-crear, reactualizar y hacer coherente el devenir histórico ligado al territorio y los patrones cósmicos" (ver Capítulo 4). Esta última observación complementa y refuerza la lectura de la tercera sección del manuscrito propuesta por Joanne Harwood, para quien, independientemente de lo original de las soluciones visuales utilizadas para componer esta sección del manuscrito, su modelo prehispánico se encuentra en un género de resonancia religiosa mesoamericana: el teoamoxtli.

El Códice mendocino: nuevas perspectivas

In this rich and surprising book, Frances F. Berdan shines fresh light on the enigmatic ancient Aztecs. She casts her net wide, covering topics as diverse as ethnicity, empire-building, palace life, etiquette, origin myths, and human sacrifice. While the Aztecs are often described as “stone age,” their achievements were remarkable. They constructed lofty temples and produced fine arts in precious stones, gold, and shimmering feathers. They crafted beautiful poetry and studied the sciences. They had schools and libraries, entrepreneurs and money, and a bewildering array of deities and dramatic ceremonies. Based on the latest research and lavishly illustrated, this book reveals the Aztecs to have created a civilization of sophistication and finesse.

Lost Civilizations

The Aztecs

Patricia Rieff Anawalt

"A virtual treasure-trove of ethnographic detail on selected aspects of Aztec culture and society. . . . The new facsimile edition places this important source more directly in the mainstream of ethnohistorical research."--H. R. Harvey, University of Wisconsin-Madison "By far the most complete source on the Mendoza ever published [with] a group of contributors of very high caliber. . . . No work I am aware of comes even close to combining a reproduction of the document with the various commentaries on its production, its historical background, authorship, and social context. These discussions make the work highly accessible to non-specialists."--Richard E. Blanton, Purdue University

The Codex Mendoza

Deborah L. Nichols

Michael E. Smith

"Rethinking the Aztec Economy provides new perspectives on the society and economy of the ancient Aztecs by focusing on goods and their patterns of circulation"--Provided by publisher.

Rethinking the Aztec Economy

This four-volume hardcover facsimile edition of Codex Mendoza places the most comprehensive, most extensively illustrated document of Aztec civilization within reach of a broad audience. 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-volume publication is an unsurpassed source of information about Aztec history, geography, economy, social and political organization, glyphic writing, costumes, textiles, military attire, and indigenous art styles. Volume 1 contains interpretive essays by the authors and other leading specialists on every aspect of Codex Mendoza. Volume 2 offers a thorough description and discussion of each pictorial page, and Volume 3 is a complete color facsimile of the manuscript itself. Volume 4, a parallel image volume, is the most innovative and in some ways the most useful of the four. It provides an exact duplicate in black and white of the facsimile Volume 3, with the sixteenth-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 extensive and useful 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. In making this extraordinary sixteenth-century work accessible (the original manuscript resides in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England), the authors have performed an invaluable service to Mesoamerican scholars and all those interested in pre-Columbian peoples.

Four-Volume Set

Codex Mendoza

This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of Aztec culture, encompassing topics of history, economy, social life, political relations, and religious beliefs and ceremonies. It offers an integrated view of Aztec life, grappling with thorny issues such as human sacrifice and the controversial role of up-and-coming merchants. The book meshes data, methods, and theories from a variety of disciplines including archaeology, ethnohistory, ethnography, and art history.

Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory

This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of Aztec culture, applying interdisciplinary approaches (archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnography) to reconstructing the complex and enigmatic civilization. Frances F. Berdan offers a balanced assessment of complementary and sometimes contradictory sources in unravelling the ancient way of life. The book provides a cohesive view of the Aztecs and their empire, emphasizing the diversity and complexity of social, economic, political and religious roles played by the many kinds of people we call 'Aztecs'. Concluding with three integrative case studies, the book examines the stresses, dynamics and anchors of Aztec culture and society.

Frances F. Berdan

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