Aztec, Mixtec, Maya & Early Spanish Codices, Manuscripts and Histories
To see digital versions of the originals, see ‘Codices of Mexico‘ by the INAH (Historical Archives of the Mexican Government)
To see a pretty good list of most if not all known atztec, mixtec and maya codices, see this wikipedia article & its links.
The Codex Borbonicus by Unknown Nahua Scribe (1507?)
The Codex Borbonicus is an extremely important codex because it is written in the native style from the Mexica perspective (unfortunately no pre-conquest codex form Tenochtitlan has survived to the present day). In addition, it contains Spanish annotations which can thus help us in reading other pre-conquest codices. This codex is most likely pre-conquest in origin or a direct copy of a pre-conquest codex due to its structure. The resulting work is a complete tonalamatl (book of the days of the tonalpohualli) which does not exist in such intricate detail in any other codex. Ceremonies related to both the months of the xiuhpohualli (year count) and the 52 year new fire ceremony are also depicted in amazing detail in the second part of the codex. How to Get a Hard Copy of the Book:
Facsimile Reproduction
How to Get a Digital Copy of the Book:
http://www.calmecacanahuac.com/amoxtin/codexbortonicus.pdf
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Letters from Hurnan Cortes (1521)
These letters tell the story of the conquest from Cortes’ perspective. Much of the exact same events from Chapter 12 (The conquest) of the Florentine Codex. Its very informative to see the differences in perspective which can serve as a good launch point to understand the Spanish Christian bias in many codices. Of especial note is his perspective on the Masacre at Cholula here.
Digital Copy available here.
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The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The account of Bernal Díaz del Castillo (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain) tells the story of the conquest of the Aztec from the perspective of Diaz, a soldier, differing significantly from Hernán Cortés’s letters or the Florentine Codex. While they cover the same historical window (the fall of the Aztec Empire), they differ significantly in perspective, purpose, and specific details. A great quote to summarize his take on things is: “As the kind reader would be disgusted with hearing of the numbers of male and female Indians we found butchered [sacrificed] along every road and in every village we passed through, I will be silent on that head.” His account is a refutation to ‘untruths’ in both Cortes accounts and Cortes’ biography by his chaplain, Francisco López de Gómara’s Historia de la conquista de México (1552) (who never came to Mexico).
Digital Copy available here.
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The Codex Mendoza by Unknown Nahua Scribes (1541?)
The Codex Mendoza was produced in the year 1541, remarkably close to the Spanish conquest. The codex also contains a copy of the Matricula de Tributo which we know was produced between the years of 1522-1530, greatly increasing its overall accuracy. The codex was produced for the Spanish crown which requested detailed information about the politics, tribute system, and culture of the Native people in Mexico. The codex is named after Don Antonio de Mendoza, the viceroy of New Spain at the time. To complete the codex, he commissioned several Nahua scribes from the Tlatelolco college. This codex is absolutely critical for research into Mexica political structure, economy, daily life, and also linguistics as many intricate pictographs can be found throughout the codex which together form a complex written system.How to Get a Hard Copy of the Book:
The Essential Codex Mendoza (Out of Print So Very Expensive!)
How to Get a Digital Copy of the Book: http://www.calmecacanahuac.com/amoxtin/CodexMendoza.pdf
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Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca by don Alonso de Casteñeda? (1546)
This manuscript was probably created at the behest of an indigenous noble, don Alonso de Casteñeda, who lived in the town of Cuauhtinchan in central Mexico. It includes alphabetic writing, glyphs, and painted images—a combination often used in the sixteenth century to remember and record pre-Hispanic history.
In New Spain, pre-Hispanic history had political uses. Because don Alonso could trace his ancestry to this primordial cave, he could justify his status as one of the ruling elite of his community. Pre-Hispanic history also had social uses. Because this history painting carefully distinguished among the different ethnic groups inhabiting the cave, it provided a historical rationale for ethnic divisions between Cuauhtinchan and neighboring communities, and within Cuauhtinchan itself.
The document, the so-called “Historia tolteca-chichimeca,” was written around 1550-1560 in the town of Cuauhtinchan, east of Puebla. It details the socio-political antecedents of Cuauhtinchan, starting with the breakup of old Tula, followed by migrations of some of the Toltecs to Cholula and their spread from there to surrounding areas, of which Cuauhtinchan was one. The first portion of the text, dealing with the Toltecs in general, is strongly mythical-legendary; the second part consists of annals of the Cuauhtinchan people, bringing them year-by-year, ruler-by-ruler, past their relations with Cholula to the splintering of their domain under the Aztecs and on to the first years of the Spanish conquest. The Nahuatl text carries the main burden of the narration, but numerous glyphs, pictures, and maps are integrated into the account. It appears that the sixteenth-century document coming down to us rests on earlier versions in which only the glyphic portion was written and the rest was oral. While the contents of the document bear on innumerable topics, they especially illustrate the extreme importance of the sub-imperial level and microethnicity just at the time when scholars are turning to serious regional investigation of late preconquest central Mexico.
A book translating and showcasing much of the text is found here.
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Codex Chimalpopoca (1558?)
Perhaps one of the oldest postconquest cartographic Aztec codex, from which many subsequent histories come. The original of the manuscript is unknown and the original is probably a copy of an even older work. The three parts of the copied manuscript in Mexico’s National Institute are all in one hand. The script is provided with cover pages bearing the genealogy of Mexican historian Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl. Although Ixtlilxochitl himself does not make mention anywhere in his works of this manuscript, it is tempting to speculate that he is the copyist.
Codex Chimalpopoca is composed of three parts unrelated to each other. The first part, called Anales de Cuauhtitlan (Annals of Cuautitlán), is a work in Nahuatl, which takes its name from the city of Cuautitlán. The content is primarily historical. It nevertheless contains a brief version of the Leyenda de los Soles (Legend of the Suns — compare to Ixtlilxochitl’s summaries). This part occupies pages 1–68 of the codex. The second part, with the title Breve relación de los dioses y ritos de la gentilidad, consists of a short book written in Spanish (pages 69–74 of the manuscript) by a certain Indian cleric of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, Pedro Ponce de León, which deals with Aztec deities and rites. The third part, called Leyenda de los Soles is another work in Nahuatl that develops versions of the most frequently cited sun legends (pages 75–84). The Codex’s name was given by Francisco del Paso y Troncoso in 1903. The second section, the Breve relación, is not included in the 1945 copy.
First 2 chapters of Leyenda de los Soles. (see my library for OCR’d version)
Archive.org version (History and mythology of the Aztecs : the Codex Chimalpopoca, john Bierhorst)
Purchase entire book (cheap on Amazon)
Another version (on Amazon)
Whole book on Scribd, lots of annoying adds (link)
Better version on JSTOR (must be logged in to a free account)
(I also have a free pdf version in my library, archaeology papers, pdf repository)
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Codex Ixtlilxochitl (1580?)
Presumably compiled by by Fernando de Alva Cortez Ixtlilxochitl (c.1578?–1650). This codex shows the early date at which ixtlilxochitl began compiling his history (found later in this document). Read more on this codex here. Codex Ixtlilxochitl (Nahuatl for “black-faced flower”) is a pictorial Aztec Codex created between 1580 and 1584, during the Spanish colonial era in Mexico. It depicts past ceremonies and holidays observed at the Great Teocalli of the Aztec altepetl or city-state of Texcoco, near modern-day Mexico City, and has visual representations of rulers and deities with association to Texcoco. The existence of this codex is a demonstration of the cultural assimilations and interactions between native Aztecs, Spanish colonists, and mestizos that occurred during the 17th century in Mexico as the colonies developed and their residents, of all cultures, endeavored to find a balance between native tradition and colonial innovation.
While the artists of the individual images are unknown, it can be assumed that they were Aztec natives under the direction of Spanish clergy for the purpose of identifying rituals that were deemed to be sacrilegious by the Spanish Catholics.[6] The codex itself is three of these separate documents, making up distinguishable sections, and was assembled by Fernando de Alva Cortez Ixtlilxochitl (c.1578?–1650)[7] a nobleman and historian of esteemed status due to his direct descent from Ixtlilxochitl I[8] and Ixtlilxochitl II,[8] who had been tlatoani (rulers) of the altepetl (city-state) of Texcoco.[9][10] The attribution of numerous historical chronicles to him was a result of his role as a government-sanctioned archivist and as well as his skills in interpretation and recording of Aztec culture and language; as a result of his achievements at the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, he was commissioned by New Spain’s viceroy Luis de Velasco to interpret between Spanish speakers and Nahuatl speakers in matters of government and chronicle in detail the history of the Aztec peoples.[11] The Codex Ixtlilxochitl was a result of this chronicling, and mainly discusses Aztec deities and rulers, as well as religious rituals and their calendric associations.
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History of the Indies of New Spain by Diego Duran (1581)
Diego Duran (1537-1588) was a Spanish friar whose two other works (Ancient Calendar and Book of the Gods and Rites) were written to help other friars identify and destroy pagan practices. Duran was raised in Texcoco and was fluent in Nahuatl. Because of this, he was able to earn the trust of the Native people and thus had access to a wealth of information that he referenced in his works. In addition, since he was a member of a Native community he often provided unparalleled insight into the daily life of the people. He also often went out of his way to provide Nahuatl translations for many of the words he referenced in his books. Duran published the History of the Indies of New Spain some time in the 1500s.The main reason why this book is listed is because it seems as though everyone with a pen (Spaniards and Natives alike) chose to write a history of the Mexica people from Pre-Conquest times to the Spanish conquest. This makes finding an objective account a very difficult task as everyone who wrote, utilized their own perspective. Chimalpahin for example wrote about the Spanish conquest through the lens of a Chalco native whereas Ixtlilxochitl, another native writer, wrote through the lens of a Texcoco native. Reading so many different accounts on the same historical events can quickly become overwhelming to the casual reader. Duran painstakingly gathered all of the Native and Spanish historical accounts that he had available to him and wrote with the goal of providing an objective account of the Spanish conquest. The resulting work is invaluable as he identifies Spanish exaggerations and other inaccuracies for the reader – so much so that the book was heavily criticized by the Spaniards of his time. He worked really diligently to reconcile contradictory accounts on such important events as the death of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin and cites his sources. How to Get a Hard Copy of the Book:
-Book of God’s and rites. ( online here, also in personal library Diego-Duran-Gods-and-Rites.pdf)
-The Ancient Calendar (often combined with Gods & Rites, such as here)
–History of the Indies of New Spain (at internet Archive, which you can check out)
>Digital Copy of the Book: Google Book 1, Google Book 2
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The Florentine Codex by Bernardino de Sahagun (1590)
The Florentine Codex was written by Nahua scribes who were supervised by a Spanish priest named Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590). The codex contains over 2,000 pages of text and is thus a gold mine whose breadth is unmatched by any other source. The authors worked on the codex from 1545 to 1590. Its close proximity to the Spanish Conquest and also the confirmation of much of the work through other methodologies makes it very accurate. The trustworthiness of the authors however is problematic. Sahagun’s stated purpose of producing the book was to document Nahua history and culture but also to create a manual which the catholic church could use to weed out paganism. Fortunately the original codex was written in Nahuatl and Spanish which allows the reader to easily identify Spanish attempts at modifying the Nahuatl text. For example in book 12 there is an entry that described the Spanish attempt to take gold from Tenochtitlan as: ‘Like monkeys they grabbed the gold’ in Nahuatl yet the corresponding Spanish text states: ‘their gifts were received with great joy.’ Clearly Sahagun was attempting to change the narrative so that the actions of his fellow Spaniards would be seen in a more positive light. The Nahua scribes were Sahagun’s students and were thus already Christianized. Two aspects of the codex work to counteract the trustworthiness issues of its authors: much of the text is composed of direct translations of interviews of Native informants who lived before the conquest and the Nahuatl portions of the Florentine codex has since been translated into English thus bypassing the Spanish distorted translations. The Florentine Codex is perhaps the most widely quoted book in the field for good reason however the reader must be careful to take into account the context of the writings and compare them to other sources whenever possible. There are parts of the book where it is clear that the Nahua scribes are interpreting concepts through a Christian lens whereas in other parts such as Book 6 (widely considered to be the most valuable book in the codex) they are quoting Native elders directly. How to Get a Hard Copy of the Book:
0. Introduction and Indices (amazon)
1. The Gods (amazon – original scan)
2. The Ceremonies (amazon – original scan)
3. The Origin of the Gods (amazon – original scan)
4. The Soothsayers (amazon – original scan, about a person’s destiny based on their day sign:)
5. The Omens/Superstitions (amazon – original scan)
6. Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy (amazon – original scan, includes the famous talk of advice told by a Nahua father to his daughter.)
7. The Sun, Moon and Stars, and the Binding of the Years (amazon – original scan, It has the famous 5th sun creation story)
8. Kings and Lords (amazon – original scan, about the upper class)
9. The Merchants (amazon – original scan, About merchants, officials responsible for precious items and feather working. Also, it includes information about smoking done during gatherings and religious ceremonies, using pipes that were filled with herbs and certain grasses or by smoking cigars made by rolling up tobacco leaves.)
10. The People & Society (amazon – original scan, has a famous story: Quetzalcoatl & the Toltecs. There’s an interesting summary of the cultural evolution of the Nahuas)
11. Earthly Things (amazon – original scan, he largest of the book. Pretty much a pharmacology book. Animals based on Mexica belief)
12. The Conquest (amazon – original scan)
Very detailed Table of Contents available here.
Book 12 Most chapters (Conquest) available online here.
Book 10? Section on the Journey of Quetzalcoatl. English translation.
Download a scan of the WHOLE book in original Spanish here. (slow, get from my library version called ‘Sahagún-The Florentine Codex-Volume 1-3’
How to Buy a Digital Copy of the Book: Florentine Codex Searchable PDF,
Buy English Print version of individual books from University of Utah Press. Or from Amazon.
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Historia Chichimeca by Fernando de Alba Ixtlilxochitl (~1595, 1630?)
Born 1568; died 1648. The most illustrious of the native Mexican historians and the great-grandson of Don Fernando Ixtlilxochitl II (c.1500-1550), contemporary of Moctezuma II, king of the Aztec Empire at the conquest, and fifth son of Netzahualpilli, King of Texcoco, and of his wife Doña Beatriz Panantzin, daughter of Cuitlahuac, last but one of the Aztec emperors. He was educated in the college of Santa Cruz de Tlaltelolco, but, notwithstanding his illustrious birth, education, and ability, he lived for a long time in dire poverty, and the greater part of his works were written to relieve his wants. He gives a detailed account of the important part played by his great-grandfather Don Fernando in the conquest of Mexico and the pacification of the Indians of New Spain, praising him in every possible way, and blaming the ingratitude of the conquerors. “His descendants”, says the writer, “were left poor and neglected, with scarcely a roof to shelter them, and even this is gradually being taken from them.” In “La Entreaty de los Españoles en Texcoco” he again remarks: “The sons, daughters, grandchildren, and relations of Netzahualcoyotl and Netzahualpilli are ploughing and digging to earn their daily bread and to pay ten reales and half a measure of corn to his Majesty. And we, the descendants of a royal race, are being taxed beyond every lawful right.” Partly owing to the appeal made in his works, and partly to the favour of Fray Garcia Guerra, who afterwards became Archbishop and Viceroy of New Spain, some land concessions were granted Don Fernando, and he was appointed interpreter in the Indian judiciary court. The “Historia de la Nación Chichemeca” was his last work, but this he left unfinished, having reached only the period of the siege of Mexico. This is the best of his works. The facts are fairly well defined, the chronology is more exact, the editing much better, and more care is taken in the orthography of Texcocan names. His other works contain very important data for the history of Mexico, but they are written without order or method, the chronology is very faulty, and there is much repetition. For his writings he availed himself of the ancient Indian hieroglyphic paintings, and the traditions and songs of the Indians; he indicates those which he has consulted—all of them more than eighty years old. Many of his works may have come from Chimalpahin’s history which was in his collection (I haven’t back-checked this, but many chapter titles are identical)
Original written manuscript: Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando de Alba. Historia Chichimeca, ~1580-1615 (never published, archived in Spain or Italy)
First official printing: Kingsborough. Antiquities of Mexico. Vol. IX London 1848 (in Spanish, available here)
Chavero, Alfredo (ed.), Obras históricas de D. Fernando de Alba Ixtlilxochitl. México, 1891-92. (in Spanish, available here, or download pdf here)
Brian, Benton, Villella & Loaeza. History of the Chichimeca Nation: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s Seventeenth-Century Chronicle of Ancient Mexico, 2019 (in English hardcopy available here)
An index of chapters in Spanish available here.
My sloppy English translation here and here.
Good translation of first few chapters here.
Compare his Summaries to Leyenda de los Soles (links above)
Outline of Contents
- SUMARIA RELAClON (Summary Accounts of the Toltecs), etc., in 5 sections. A summary of all the events that occurred in New Spain and of many things known and accomplished by the Tultecas from the creation of the world to their destruction, and from the coming of the third Chichemeca settlers up to the invasion of the Spaniards, taken from the original history “La Nueva España”.
- History of the Chichimeca Lords, etc.; in 12 sections (relaciones). To this is added the continuation of the events of Netzahualcoyotl until the Xochimilco war; a list of 154 names of cities subject to the 3 kings Mexico, Tlacopan, and Texcoco. Another section of the history of Netzahualcoyotl; The Ordinances or Laws of Netzahualcoyotl; Account of Netzahualpilli, son of Netzahualcoyotl.
- The order and ceremony to make a Lord, etc. Established by Topiltz, Lord of Tula.
- The coming of the Spaniards to this New Spain. (C: p.437)
- Entry of the Spaniards into Texcuco.
- News of the settlers (pobladoras), etc. In 13 accounts.
- Brief accounts, in 11 sections (relaciones). As a continuation of it there are two news items entitled, one Relation of the other Lords of New Spain, and the other account of the origin of the Xochimilcas.
- Summary Accounts (relaciones), etc. Also in volume 30 of the manuscripts in the Archive there are two pieces, one is the Songs of Netzahualcoyotl, and the other is the Historical Fragments of his life. Although they are attributed to Ixtlilxochitl, there is no way to confirm it.
Note that Kingsborough puts the 95 chapters first (p.205-316). But Chavero re-orders things and puts them later.
- I. History of the Chichimeca Lords..
- II. Continuation of the History of Mexico..
- III. Painting from Mexico.
- IV. Painting from Mexico.
- V. Ordinances of Netzahualcoyotl.
- VI. Order and ceremonies to make a Lord.
- VII. The coming of the Spanish.
- VII. Entry of the Spaniards in Texcuco.
- IX. News of the settlers, etc.
- X. Brief relationship.
- XI. Summary Relationship.
- XII. Chichimeca history, in 95 chapters.
- XIII. Songs of Netzahualcoyotl.
- XIV. Fragments of his life.
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Anales or Relaciones by Chimalpahin (~1614?)
Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin (1579-1660) wrote from 1589 through 1615. He makes it to the top of the list because in addition to writing close to the conquest, he was an independent researcher whose work is not associated with the catholic church. His Codex Chimalpahin is considered the first history of Mexico. A proud Nahua native of the altepetl Chalco, Chimalpahin’s work is immensely important and has only recently been translated into English. Chimalpahin wrote about the history of Mexico spanning from pre-conquest times to the time in which he was living. Chimalpahin had access to sources that are no longer available to us and perhaps more importantly interviewed indigenous people who lived through many of the historical events he wrote about. He was also interested in genealogy, and was himself a direct descendant of the founder of Chalco. He witnessed many important historical events such as the moment the Spaniards began taxing the Mexica population in Tenochtitlan in the late 1500s, the arrival in Mexico of African slaves, and the visit of Japanese samurais to Mexico. Chimalpahin is relatively unknown and his work has not yet been thoroughly researched because Mexico only recently recovered his original books that were held in European libraries gathering dust for hundreds of years.
It is assumed that this codex (with other items in the Sigüenza y Góngora collection) were source material for Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s works. Many of Ixtlilxochitl’s chapters share identical title’s with chapters in the Codex Chimalpahin.
Very detailed table of contents with links to original scans.
Volume 1 : Major Post-Conquest Events
– 1. Historía de la nación chichimeca.
– 2. Compendio historico de los Reyes de Tetzcoco.
Volume 2: History of the Chichimeca Nation
– 4. Sumaria relación de todas las cosas que han sucedido en la Nueva España …
– 5. Historia de los señores chichimecos hasta la venida de los españoles.
– 9. Sumaria relación de la historia general de esta Nueva España …
– 10. Relación sucinta en forma de memorial de las historias de Nueva España y sus señorios hasta el ingreso de los españoles.
Volume 3: The Calendar and Various Genealogies
How to Get a Digital Copy of the Book: http://www.codicechimalpahin.inah.gob.mx/
A Table of Contents Directly Linking to Specific Sections of the Above Digital Copy is Available Here
How to Get a Hard Copy of the Book: see here (fairly cheap)
Fairly significant preview available in google books here.
Archive.org version of ‘Society and politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan’ (here)
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Anonimo Mexicano by Juan de Torquemada (1615)
His monumental work “Monarquía indiana”, likely just copied the unpublished work of Diego Muñoz Camargo. Camargo (c. 1529 – 1599) was the author of History of Tlaxcala which is preserved only through Ylláñez’s Lienzo de Tlaxala (1773). Torquemada was born in 1562 and died 1624. Contemporary to Don Fernando Ixtlilxochitl, and referenced extensively by most later chroniclers, including Veytia. A Franciscan friar, active as missionary in colonial Mexico and considered the “leading Franciscan chronicler of his generation.” Administrator, engineer, architect and ethnographer, he is most famous for his monumental work commonly known as Monarquía indiana (“Indian Monarchy”), a survey of the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of New Spain together with an account of their conversion to Christianity, first published in Spain in 1615 and republished in 1723. Monarquia Indiana was the “prime text of Mexican history, and was destined to influence all subsequent chronicles until the twentieth century.” It was used by later historians, the Franciscan Augustin de Vetancurt and most importantly by 18th-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero.
Many segments of the travels and settlements of the Toltec and Chichimec’s are in this English translation. Get it here. Read it in the JSTOR viewer here. And the original Spanish Version here.
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Historia Antigua by Mariano Fernandez Veytia (~1770)
Born 1718. Died 1780. He is considered the first historian of Puebla with his work Historia de Puebla de los Ángeles , and was also the author of a work entitled Historia Antigua de México, which was the continuation of the unfinished work of Lorenzo Boturini. Boturini assembled the largest collection of Mexican antiquities assembled to that time, and spend considerable time with Veytia who finished and wrote down much of his work. Veytia’s book was likewise published post mortem by yet another author, Francisco Ortega in 1836. He copied, preserved and passed on several ancient codices, a few of which are named after him. See Codex Veitia. He also wrote a detailed history of Puebla I haven’t been able to find online yet. Much like Ixtlilxochitl’s work’s Veytia’s work shares absolutely incredible similarities to the Book of Mormon.
His works (as well as Ixtlilxochitl’s?) are likely at least partly based on the 21 accordion sheet picture book, the Codex Boturini (also known as the Tira de la Peregrinación de los Mexica). And possibly other Aztec migration picture books like the 50 page Codex Mexicanus (found at this link). And the 49 accordion page picture book , the Codex Vaticanus B (found at this link).
See a list of ~40 other early Aztec Codices many of which are likely from the Boturini Collection. (wiki: List of Aztec Codices)
The first printing 1836 Spanish version of his Historia antigua de Méjico can be found here. A newer English translation is available here. (Which I own, and can attest that it’s good.)
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See also:
Historia antigua de México and Historia de la Antigua o Baja California by Francisco Javier Clavijero (1731-1787)
Note that Ixtlilxochitl’s (1568/80-1648) library or ‘native archive’ passed to his son Juan de Alva Cortés who then gave it to the contemporary Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (1645-1700) who combined it with many Spanish histories (often called the ‘creole archive’), then willed it to the College of San Pedro and San Pablo after his death. There, Jesuits like Veytia & Clavijero had access to it. It is likely that Boturini’s collection also ended up there. I haven’t yet figure out where the library went when the Jesuits were expelled and the college fell to ruins (by 1767-1816). Apparently some of it was transferred to their other Mexico City college of San Ildefonso. By the early nineteenth century Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s writings and collected documents had been dispersed to various parts of the world, forcing Creoles to work with transcriptions the Milanese scholar Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci (1698–1755) had made at San Pablo y San Pedro in the eighteenth century.
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Table of Aztec Migration Accounts
There’s a lot of confusion among the various accounts of what is the Toltec journey, what is the Mexica journey, etc, and which goes up and which comes back and such. That’s why I’m going to create the table so you can see it all. I believe there are actually 4 and possibly 5 different accounts going on.
- trip from old world which often mixes the Jaredite, mulekite & nephite mythologized journeys
- the Mosiah/Toltec trip from Nephi (Zapotec, Oaxaca) to Zarahemla (Chulula). Where Mosiah frees the people of Zarahemla from the Giants. (maybe even Mulekites in here who landed in Tehuantepec.)
- the Mosiah/Toltec trip from Nephi (Zapotec, Oaxaca) to Zarahemla (Chulula). Where Mosiah frees the people of Zarahemla from the Giants. (maybe even Mulekites in here who landed in Tehuantepec.)
- the Toltec trip from the Valley of Mexico to the Southwest/midwest (before the final war)
- The trip back, where the ‘mexica’ come and conquer the land of Zarahemla and set up the final Aztec empire.
- Journeys of Quetzalcoatl are mixed in here too.
NOTE: Most of this work is already done in Smith’s Aztlan Chronicles: myth or History. He has the sources, a chart, and lots of details. Here’s some notes:
-copy and update his chart: page 160,
-Note he has a quote from Chimalpahin proving they named new cities after the old. p162. ““it was the custom that when someone left his town and went to colonize another town from one that already existed, that such person would use as the new name, the name of the town from which he moved from…” (Chimalpahin 1965, p.66)
-But note this is ONLY of the 3 RETURN journeys from Aztlan to the basin of mexico.
Sources of the Journey can be found in: (find better list in Smith: page 159 here)
- Ixtlilxochitl, Chichemeca History
- Diego Duran, History of New Spain (online here) & God&Rites, chapter x? (online here, or in my library)
- Anonimo Mexicano – Torquemada. (online here, or in my libary)
- Journey of Quetzalcoatl, from Florentine Codex
- Relaciones or Codex Chimalpahin. (source for Ixtlilxochitl, see pages 18- for example, more here).
- Codex Boturini (no Spanish/English translation/commentary, only pictoglyphs)
- Codex Chimalpopoca (correctly placed Tula’s destructionand the dispersal of the Toltecs in 1064 C.E)
- The Annals of Cuauhtitlan (part of Codex Chimalpopoca – English version here)
- Legend of the Suns (also part of Codex Chimalpopoca – Spanish version here)
- Codex Ramirez.- Hisotria de los Mexicanos – History of the Mexicans as Told by Their Paintings (available here)
- Codex Azcatitlan. (pictographs only. viewable here)
https://www.academia.edu/82298277/Annals_of_Cuauhtitlan
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331971817_Toltec_chronology_Aztec_chronology_Aztlan_and_the_Fifth_Sun
https://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/1-CompleteSet/MES-84-Aztlan.pdf
https://archive.org/details/codexchimalpahin0001chim/page/n9/mode/2up
Notes on Accounts
The first chapter of Duran’s ‘history of the Indies of New Spain’ matches what is said by Ixtlilxochitl’s summaries of the flood and tower of babel, and exodus with ‘things raining down’. he says
“I have obtained from my Indian informants tells of the seven caves where their ancestors dwelt for so long and which they abandoned in order to seek this land, some coming first and others later until these caves were totally deserted. The caves are in Teocolhuacan, which is also called Aztlan, “land of Herons”, which we are told is found toward the north and near the region of La Florida.”
Duran in chapter II puts their leaving “those seven caves” (chicmotec) in 820 AD. said the distance was “short” and could have been done in a month, but they took longer arriving in 902 AD. Six tribes came then, but the Aztecs took 302 years longer. He says those who settled where “puebla and Cholula were ‘The Giants’ , the Quiname, which means ‘men of great stature’. (p.11)
-tells story of how Cholutecas killed the giants, drove them off cliffs and did a banquet ambush.
-Aztecs were idolaters, and brought the idol “Huitzilopochtl” who appeared in a bush and had priests.
-They came from Aztlan, “this place could mean “place of “whiteness” or “Place of the Herons” and arrived in 1193 AD, and they were also called Mexicans in honor of the priest Meci who guided them.
-The Aztec people went through the land of the Chichimec. They saw all of this new country and the plains of Cibola, but nothing in that land pleased them, and they cam to rest in the province that is now called Michoacán in a place called Patzcuaro” (p14). HUGE that it mentions Florida AND Cibola!
-Then he tells the story of the people stealing their clothes. He says “It is the custom of these people to name a town for its founder” (p17)
-The Aztecs went into the land of Tula. Tells story of building a dam. They arrived in the year 1168, but then continue on..
-Huitzilopochtli, is called the devil by Duran because of the story of him teaching them to sacrifice hearts, and how he’s a hummingbird and has a sister who was a wicked sorceress.
-“The Aztecs finally come to rest at Chapultepec”, where they fortify the top of the hill. Then a war starts with Colhuacan.
-Chapter 4 & 5 get so mythologized they are hard to read. The Azecs found Tenochtitlan on the eagle story place…
-Tulan & Tulancingo are mentioned in conjunction with Cortez as an “Otomi area”.
-He quotes “The Chronicles”. whose book is that? p.135
-CHAPTER 27. Tells of how king Moteczoma sent out explorers to “seek out the place where his ancestors dwelt.. the Seven Caves which his own traditions mentioned” … “that blissful happy place called Aztlan… that place [where] there is a great hill.. called Cohuacan because its summit is twisted; this is the twisted hill. On its slopes were caves and ghrottos where our fathers and grandfathers lived for many years… when they were called Mexitin and Azteca… Our fathers went about in canoes and made floating gardens… However, after they came to the mainland and abandoned that delightful place… weeds began to bite, stones became sharp… The Chronicle tells us [they found Aztlan and] saw fishermen going about in canoes… in the Seven Caves, Chicomoztoc.”
-A story of Quetzalcoatl the king is given where he kills his fathers assassin. He reigned in Tula, “north of the valley of Mexico”, and is forced to abandon it around 1000 AD. (p326)
-Footnotes cite the Anales de Cuauhtitlan saying Aztecs left the Seven Caves in 1090, and arrive in Tula in 1163 AD.
ANONIMO MEXICANO – TORQUEMADA
-toltecs wore long white tunics
-came from Huehuetlapatl settled in Tonanzinco, then to tollan where they ruled.
-gives list of rulars, each rule 52 years, Toltec collapsed in Tecpancaltzin..
-finish later (ch3
A few of the table items:
-Gives dates for journey from Tula
-Dates are 10-12 century AD
-Place where it is… (Florida, Cibola, California, Michoacan, etc)
-Account of Journey from 7 caves to Tula
-Details the god/idol Huitzilopochtli they bring with
Alexander von Humboldt & the Boturini Collection
The Boturini collection was formed between 1736 and 1744, to serve as the basis of a projected Historia de América Septentrional. It consisted of many valuable documents, the majority of them of Indian provenance. Among these were hieroglyphic paintings that had belonged to Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a descendant of the rulers of Texcoco. Ixtlilxotchitl bequeathed these documents to Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora.
The collection was confiscated by Viceroy Pedro Cebrián y Agustín at the time of Boturini’s arrest in 1743. It was deposited in the office of the secretary of the viceroyalty. The documents were neglected there for years and suffered considerable pilferage.
The subsequent viceroy, Juan Francisco de Güemes, 1st Count of Revillagigedo, granted the historian and antiquary Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia (Boturini’s friend from Madrid) the paintings and documents he solicited for his own studies. On Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia’s death, they passed to Antonio de León y Gama. He died in 1802, and the collection passed to his heirs. Shortly thereafter, 16 paintings (and likely copies of many texts) were obtained by Alexander von Humboldt during his visit to Mexico in 1802–03. He published them in Vues des cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes d’Amérique. The originals of these are now in the Berlin State Library.
A Times and Seasons article from 1842 (see Joseph Smith quotes on Book of Mormon geography) summarizes the ideas from Alexander Von Humbolt’s 1814 book Researches concerning the institutions & monuments of the ancient inhabitants of America. Here the author draws on similarities between the Book of Mormon story of the Jaredites and Aztec & Toltec legends along with biblical stories of the flood and tower of babel. Of particular note in this discussion is the reference to Von Humbolt’s assertion that Aztec’s or Toltecs from the Valley of Mexico had migrated to the Great Lakes region, which they called Aztlan, and mixed with the Iroquios and Huron peoples. (see Humbolt, p.171)
The referencing of Von Humbolt’s book in the Times and Seasons is notable for too many reasons to mention in this article, but one should at least take into account the many allusions in the book to the Toltec migrations from Aztlan which it places in New England in some places, and the old world in others. As well as a reference to the reverse Aztec migration found in the annals of Domingo Chimalpahin from a city named Acahualtzinco, “situated probably under the parallel of thirty or thirty five north latitude… since the year 1091” (p. 299-309, Humboldt). This is roughly the latitude encompassed by Arkansas and again suggests native American beliefs in migrations of a continental nature.
Humbolt’s work had been popularized in the United States since his visit to Washtington DC in 1804. And a section of the Lord Edward Kingsborough Mesoamerican manuscript collection (Antiquities of Mexico, 1831) contains a section entitled “Humboldt Fragments” suggesting that at least a part of Kingsborough’s vast collection came from manuscripts gathered or copied decades earlier by Humboldt. Kingsborough’s collection likley contains many works from the Boturini Collection.
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Useful Chronicles of Early Spanish Explorers (Spanish Chronologers)
Alvar Nunez De Vaca, Hernando De Soto, and Coronado/Castaneda expeditions all together online here: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/42841/pg42841-images.html
Spanish exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 (Note especially the section on Sonora & Arizona on p.434) https://archive.org/details/spanishexplorat03boltgoog/page/426/mode/2up
Obregón’s history of 16th century explorations in Western America, 1584. (available online free)
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Obreg%C3%B3n_s_History_of_16th_Century_Explo/4LpVAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya. West Mexico Expeditions of 1554, 1562 & 1567 (translation by J.Lloyd Mecham, 1968)
https://ia601801.us.archive.org/9/items/franciscodeibarr00mech/franciscodeibarr00mech.pdf
The conquests of Nuno de Guzman, D. R. © 1999, FIDEICOMISO HISTORIA DE LAS AMERICAS
http://bibliotecadigital.ilce.edu.mx/sites/estados/libros/sinaloa/html/sinaloa.html
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A few pertinent excerpts:
HORSE & CATTLE REPRODUCED QUICKLY!
By 1586 Diego de Ibarra
had thirty-three thousand head of cattle, and Rodrigo del Rio had forty-two thousand head. It appears that the cattle became so numerous that they were slaughtered only for their hides and hoofs; the carcases were left to rot on the plains. Thomas Gage’s description of grazing in Guatamala (c. 1625) might apply also to Nueva Vizcaya. He met one farmer who owned forty thousand head of cattle, and heard of a man who bought six thousand head at two dollars and a quarter per head.12 Since grazing was undis¬ turbed by the government, the stock-raisers of New Spain were able to compete successfully with the Old Country. “In the sixteenth century before the interior consumption had been augmented by the number and the luxury of the whites. (p. 210 Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya, Mecham, 1968)
https://ia801801.us.archive.org/9/items/franciscodeibarr00mech/franciscodeibarr00mech.pdf
HORSE WERE GARDED, BUT GOT AWAY!
Since the horse was one of the Spaniards’ most effective instament when waging war upon the Indians, safety demanded they should restrict its use to themselves. Such nature of an order of Charles V to the first audiencia of Mexico. It was faithfully observed until the time of the Mixton War, when Mendoza allowed certain Aztec cheftains to ride at the head of their warriors. But stock-ranches increased, and wild horses became numerous along the northern frontiers, the Spanish prohibition were of no avail, and before the end of the century Tepehuane chiefs were able to command numerous troops of warriors. This situation developed with the expansion of the frontiers until, by the middle of the eighteenth century, the indians of central Canada were found mounted on Spanish ponies by Hudson’s Bay Company traders.
(p. 210 Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya, Mecham, 1968)
https://ia801801.us.archive.org/9/items/franciscodeibarr00mech/franciscodeibarr00mech.pdf
In this province (chiametla, Sinaloa) some wornout cattle were left, which the governor Francisco de Ibarra later found in increased numbers.
In these [midwestern US] plains dwell the… Querechos, the vaqueros. [Apache cow hearders]. They imitate the gypsies [nomads of europe] in having little stability f permanence of location. Ordinarily they go fro mone place to another taking with them all their property loaded on droves of dogs the size of the large mastiffs of Castile. They equip them with pack saddles of cowhide and load their leather tents [Teepees] on them. These dogs carry the tents, poles, and other implements; likewise the the household goods, supplies, meat and foodstuffs in quantities of almost four arrobas [100 lbs each]. They have many of them. (Obregón’s history of 16th century explorations in western America)
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Obreg%C3%B3n_s_History_of_16th_Century_Explo/4LpVAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1