Codex Telleriano-remensis Pdf
Danny Hosford
The Codex Telleriano-Remensis, produced in sixteenth century Mexico on European paper, is one of the finest surviving examples of Aztec manuscript painting.[1] It holds the earliest written evidence of earthquakes in the Americas.[2] Its Latinized name comes from Charles-Maurice Le Tellier, archbishop of Reims, who had possession of the manuscript in the late 17th century.[1]
The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is divided into three sections. The first section, spanning the first seven pages, describes the 365-day solar calendar, called the xiuhpohualli. The second section, spanning pages 8 to 24, is a tonalamatl, describing the 260-day tonalpohualli calendar. The third section is a history, itself divided into two sections which differ stylistically. Pages 25 to 28 are an account of migrations during the 12th and 13th centuries, while the remaining pages of the codex record historical events, such as the ascensions and deaths of rulers, battles, earthquakes, and eclipses, from the 14th century to the 16th century, including events of early Colonial Mexico.
The codex contains twelve references to a series of earthquakes that occurred between 1460 and 1542.[2] This was found by Gerardo Surez and Virginia Garca-Acosta to be the earliest references to seismic activity in the Americas.[2] Surez commented that the find was not surprising since earthquakes were both frequent in the area and important to Mesoamerican cosmology.[2]
In 1995, a reproduction of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis made from films was published by the University of Texas, with commentary by Eloise Quiones Keber. During the process of photographing and re-binding the manuscript for this publication, two pages were accidentally swapped, and appear as such in the facsimile: page 13, with Tecziztecatl on the recto and Nahui Ehecatl on the verso; and page 19, with Tamoanchan on the recto and Xolotl on the verso.[3]
As Gerardo Surez of the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico and Virginia Garca-Acosta of the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social write in the journal Seismological Research Letters, the codex contains references to 12 separate earthquakes that took place in the region between 1460 and 1542.
Referred to as tlal-ollin or nahui-ollin in the Indigenous Nahuatl language, earthquakes are represented in Aztec pictograms by two symbols: ollin (movement) and tlalli (Earth). Per the study, ollin consists of four helices symbolizing the four cardinal directions, while tlalli features one or multiple layers of multicolored markings denoting precious gemstones. The codex contains other iterations of these glyphs, but experts are unsure what they signify.
Gerardo Surez of the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico and Virginia Garca-Acosta of the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social studied pictograms reporting 12 earthquakes in the Telleriano-Remensis, occurring between 1460 and 1542.
The pictograms offer little information on the location, size or damage caused by the earthquakes, the authors note in the journal Seismological Research Letters. But along with other historical accounts found in annals written after the Spanish conquest, they extend the region's seismic history back into the 15th century.
"It is not surprising that pre Hispanic records exist describing earthquakes for two reasons," said Surez. "Earthquakes are frequent in this country and, secondly, earthquakes had a profound meaning in the cosmological view of the original inhabitants of what is now Mexico."
Mesoamerican civilizations viewed the universe as cyclical, with successive eras or "suns" destroyed by floods, wind, fire and other phenomena before the appearance of a new sun. The current and fifth "sun, "according to this view, will be destroyed by earthquakes.
Surez and Garca-Acosta began studying historical earthquakes in Mexico after the devastating magnitude 8.0 Mexico City earthquake in 1985, eventually publishing their findings in the book Los sismos en la historia de Mxico. "However, we had not tackled the pictographic representation of earthquakes," said Surez. "We recently embarked on a more detailed study of this pictographic representation and other texts written immediately after the Spanish conquest."
Codex writing, a pre-Hispanic system of symbols and colors, was done by trained specialists called tlacuilos (in the original Nahuatl language, "those who write painting"). While many codices were burned as pagan objects after the Spanish conquest, some survived and the pictographic style was used in new codices up into the 18th century.
Earthquakes, called tlalollin in the Nahuatl language, are represented by two signs: ollin (movement) and tlalli (earth). Ollin is a glyph consisting of four helices and a central eye or circle. Tlalli is a glyph consisting of one or several layers filled with dots and different colors.
In the Telleriano-Remensis, there are other modifications of the earthquake glyphs, but their meanings are not clear to scholars. "However, the consensus is that the various representations probably do have a meaning," Surez said. "Drawing codices was a strict discipline not open to artistic whims of the people trained to do it, the tlacuilos. We are hopeful that in the future an unknown codex or document may appear that may enlighten us in this respect."
Surez and Garca-Acosta note that other annals offer information that complements the codex earthquake drawings, perhaps filling in more details about the impacts and locations of specific earthquakes. For example, a historical account by the Franciscan friar Juan de Torquemada describes a 1496 earthquake that shook three mountains in "Xochitepec province, along the coast" and caused landslides in an area inhabited by the Yope people.
The site is within the Guerrero seismic gap, a region of relative seismic quiet along the subduction zone in southern Mexico. The historical descriptions suggest that the 1496 earthquake might have been a very large earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or larger within the gap. There have been no recorded earthquakes of that magnitude in the gap since 1845.
The historical evidence "really does not change our view of the seismic potential of that region in southern Mexico," Surez explained. "It simply adds additional evidence that great earthquakes have occurred in this segment of the subduction zone before, and the absence of these major earthquakes for several years should not be considered as though this region is aseismic."
De Codex Telleriano-Remensis, in de 16e eeuw in Mexico geproduceerd en afgedrukt [sic] op Europees papier, is een van de best bewaarde voorbeelden van Azteekse manuscripten. De Latijnse naam voor de codex komt van Charles-Maurice Le Tellier, aartsbisschop van Reims, die de codex in zijn bezit had aan het einde van de 17e eeuw.[1]
De Codex Telleriano-Remensis is verdeeld over drie secties. De eerste sectie, die de eerste zeven pagina's beslaat, beschrijft de 365 dagen zonnekalender, ook wel de xiuhpohualli genoemd. De tweede sectie, pagina 8 tot 24, is een tonalamatl en beschrijft de 260 dagen kalender ook wel bekend als de tonalpohualli kalender. De derde sectie is een geschiedschrijving en is verdeeld in twee secties die verschillen in stijl. Pagina 25 tot 28 vertellen over de migraties in de 12e en 13e eeuw. De overige pagina's vertellen over historische gebeurtenissen zoals; de moordaanslagen en sterfgevallen van de heersers, veldslagen, aardbevingen en eclipsen. Dit speelt zich allemaal af van de 14e tot de 16e eeuw inclusief gebeurtenissen uit Nieuw-Spanje.
In 1995, werd een reproductie van de codex, gemaakt met behulp van film, gepubliceerd door de Universiteit van Texas met commentaar van Eloise Quiones Keber. Tijdens het proces van fotograferen en opnieuw inbinden van de codex werden twee pagina's per ongeluk omgewisseld en worden dan ook zo afgebeeld in de facsimile: pagina 13, met Tecciztecatl op de rechterzijde en Nahui Ehecatl op de linker; en pagina 19, met Tamoanchan op de rechterzijde en Xolotl op de linkerzijde.[2]
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