Codex Borgia

At a glance

History, context & interpretation

The text and its story

Brilliantly painted pages of the 260-day ritual calendar, gods such as Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, and a mysterious journey of Venus through the underworld.

Traditional attribution

A sacred divinatory book (tonalamatl).

Historical scholarship

Painted on deerskin before the Spanish conquest by unknown priest-artists.

Context and curiosity

It is named after Cardinal Stefano Borgia, who owned it; it is now in the Vatican Library.

Chronology and transmission

This text belongs to The Americas (Central Mexico (Nahua or Mixtec)). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as c. 15th century CE and original language or script as Pictographic. The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.

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Sources and further reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Borgia

Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.