Codex Zouche-Nuttall

Codex Zouche-Nuttall

The Codex Zouche-Nuttall is one of the few surviving Mixtec manuscripts from pre-colonial times. The Mixtec culture was one of the defining cultures of ancient Mesoamerica, with origins dating back to the 7th century. The people originally called themselves Ñuu Dzavui – the “People of Rain” – and comprised one of the largest populations in the region. In the 15th century, the Mixtecs came under the rule of the powerful Aztec Empire and owed it tribute. Nevertheless, they were able to maintain their culture until they and their territories were colonized by the Spanish conquistadores during the 16th century. Therefore, any evidence of the people's life before the arrival of the Europeans is extremely valuable today.

Meandering Tales in Bright Colors

One such artifact is the more than 11-meter-long, accordion-folded *Codex Zouche-Nuttall***. With its colorful pictographs and ideographs, it is considered the most visually stunning Mixtec manuscript still in existence. Two painter-scribes were responsible for executing the manuscript – each for one side of the 11-meter-long parchment strip. Initially, the first described the 43 pages on the reverse, after which the second designed the 41 pages of the obverse. Both worked with a lot of red and ochre yellow. Only the color palette on the obverse is complemented by two bright blue pigments. In addition, red lines extending from the edges of the pages frequently indicate the reading direction, which mostly runs up and down in serpentine lines or bustrophedon.

Of Eight-Deer Jaguar Claw and Other Mixtec Rulers

The aesthetic differentiation between the two sides corresponds to the thematic division of the manuscript. While the obverse tells of the legendary, sometimes mythical origins of the Mixtec dynasties and urban and religious centers, the reverse presents an incomplete biography of the most prominent Mixtec ruler in the history of the people: Eight-Deer Jaguar Claw or Iya Nacuaa Teyusi Ñaña (1063–1115), who reigned in the 11th and 12th centuries. He was the only one who managed to unite the individual Mixtec principalities into an empire under his leadership. His genealogy is presented, his numerous political and strategic marriages are described, and some of his political and military successes are recounted, which were often associated with great brutality – such as the murder of his half-brother. The obverse of the folding book manuscript, on the other hand, provides more information on religious rituals and Mixtec sites, some of which are represented in large-format illustrations. This makes the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, together with the Codices Becker I/II and the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus 1, the most important written testimony to the history of Mixtec culture.