Painted Books from Mexico: Codices in Uk Collections and the World They Represent

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Description

The painted books of ancient Mexico constitute a particularly vital chapter of world literature. The work of the tlacuilo, or scribes, goes back thousands of years before the Spanish Conquest; their exquisite manuscripts were written and drawn on native paper or skin and, later, on European paper. The vast majority of these codices were destroyed throughout the invasion; a precious few have survived. About twenty of the finest of these are in British collections and Professor Brotherston has undertaken a close study of them, comparing them with Mexican books in The us and somewhere else.
Besides being beautiful artistic endeavors in their very own right, the codices offer invaluable insights into the history, religion and legends of the ancient civilisations of Mesoamerica: the Olmec, Maya, Chichimec and Mexica (Aztec). The books meticulously record wars, conquests, dynastic disputes and the biographies of great rulers like the Mixtec king Eight Deer. Complex ritual calendars give a framework for the religious observances of these peoples and offer testimony to their obsession with dates and record-keeping; maps record the spread of the Mexica, Chichimec and Mixtec across Mesoamerica. After the Conquest many of the ‘pagan’ books were burned, however the book-making tradition continued and retained among the old forms and conventions. Post-Conquest legal documents, for instance, give stark evidence of the rapacity and brutality of the invaders.

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