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Aztec Books and Writing
We launched this section a few years ago with a short introductory piece on Aztec books written for young people by our in-house researcher Julia Flood. It’s steadily building up into a little treasure trove of information on the history of paper making and book writing in ancient Mesoamerica. We’re now adding to it regularly...
’An Aztec manuscript is not read in the normal sense of the word, but is deciphered like a puzzle picture in which the glyphs provide labels and clues to what is going on...’ (Warwick Bray)
We recommend, for both teachers and students, the resource pages on Codices, Writing/Language, Paper, and more on the website of the NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers, Oaxaca 2015, link below...
‘Tooth place’: some Aztec place glyphs in the Codex Mendoza
‘How did the Spanish translate what the Aztecs wrote?’
‘How did scribes get rid of mistakes when they wrote their books?’
NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers, Oaxaca 2015
‘Was the Voynich manuscript written in Nahuatl?’
Getting to the ‘bottom’ of it -
the creative use of a glyph...
Which representation of the Templo Mayor
do you think is the odd one out...?
What did scribes write WITH
in ancient Mesoamerica?
The mysterious two characters on the
last page of the Codex Boturini...
Ancient Mexican books have been called
lots of different things, not just ‘codices’...
A movement is growing to give ancient
Mexican codices more authentic names
The Mixtecs were masters in metallurgy, lapidary work,
fine carving, and in the making of pictorial manuscripts
Mixtec codices: the only set of pre-Hispanic documents
(other than Maya books) to survive the Spanish invasion
We recommend some good introductions
to studying Mexica (Aztec) writing...
In the poetic language of the Aztecs the flower
was perhaps the most powerful metaphor of all
The Codex Laud (Códice Mictlan) was first thought
to be an Egyptian hieroglyphic book...
Hear the crackly sound of an elderly Mexica scholar
turning the pages of a dry, hard codex...
Mexica scribes changed (flower-based) colours
just by putting the brushes into their mouths...
The Aztecs valued paper almost more
than any other substance...
Studying the surface of codices
is a bit like studying the surface of the moon
The ‘art of memory’: a Shakespearean sonnet
compared to a Nahua song-poem...
The constant tapping sound -
- of bark paper making in San Pablito...
Scientists in Holland attempt
to reconstruct a Mesoamerican codex...
Some of the secrets of the codices at the Bodleian Library
are revealed by non-invasive research tecniques...
Aztec books served as reminders of key
songs, stories, rituals and myths...
Writing systems preserve and communicate stories, information and memories
that people want to keep...
The Codex Cospi was once thought
in Europe to be of Chinese origin!
We report back on the 2nd London
Nahuatl Study Day and Workshop...
Our report on the 3rd London
Nahuatl Study Day...
Our report on the 4th London
Nahuatl Study Day and Workshop
A modern-day ‘tlacuilo’
has a sad tale to tell...