The Codex Borgia
Join our online class to learn more about the postcolonial life of Aztecs, their rituals, and beliefs.
About class
During the course, we work in detail on deciphering the manuscripts in the Borjia Codex, which correlate religious and mythical concepts with the practices of violence among the Aztec people.
What is Codex Borgia?
The Codex Borgia, also known as the Codex Yoalli Ehēcatl, is one of the few codices to survive a Spanish auto-de-fé destruction of Indigenous religious texts. It was created in Central Mexico by a Nahuatl speaking community and comprises of 28 sections of religious and cultural information. We do not know when this codex arrived in Europe, but it is estimated to have been taken out of Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. It was first recorded in Europe as being in the collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731-1804) and carried his surname as its title when Borgia’s collection was moved to the Apostolic Library of the Vatican in 1902. The Codex Borgia held at the UTA Special Collections is a facsimile of the original codex. It is a book of predictions and auguries, used to search for good or bad omens and precedents for a variety of human activities. For example, the codex might be used by priests to predict good and bad times for agricultural activities such as planting or harvesting. It is based around the tonalpohualli, or 260-day religious calendar. It also contains the cycles of the planet Venus, medical prescriptions and information about sacred places and the nine Lords of the Night.
Who are the Aztecs?
The origin of the Aztec people is uncertain, but elements of their own tradition suggest that they were a tribe of hunters and gatherers on the northern Mexican plateau before their appearance in Mesoamerica in perhaps the 12th century CE; The religion of the Aztec civilization which flourished in ancient Mesoamerica (1345-1521 CE) has gained an infamous reputation for bloodthirsty human sacrifice with lurid tales of the beating heart being ripped from the still-conscious victim, decapitation, skinning and dismemberment. All of these things did happen but it is important to remember that for the Aztecs the act of sacrifice - of which human sacrifice was only a part - was a strictly ritualised process which gave the highest possible honour to the gods and was regarded as a necessity to ensure mankind's continued prosperity.
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