Codex Bodley
Also known as: MS. Mex. d. 1, Mixtec Codex Bodley
A pre-Conquest Mixtec pictorial genealogical chronicle, Codex Bodley records dynastic lineages, marriages, conquests, and ritual events linking major Mixtec polities. Its screenfold pages use day signs, toponyms, and footprints to narrate political history and legitimacy.
Description
Codex Bodley is a late Postclassic Mixtec screenfold painted on prepared deerskin. Using a complex visual language—day signs, place glyphs, personal name signs, footprints, speech scrolls, and ritual paraphernalia—it traces the genealogies and political histories of Mixtec ruling houses, notably those centered on Tilantongo and allied towns. The narrative intertwines marriages, successions, campaigns, and ritual consecrations, presenting an elite memory of sovereignty and alliance. As with other Mixtec codices, reading order is guided by red bands and footprints, moving across pages in a non-linear yet rule-bound sequence. The manuscript is preserved in the Bodleian Library and remains a key source for reconstructing late pre-Hispanic Mixtec historiography and sacred geography.
Historiography
The manuscript entered the Bodleian Library by the early modern period and was later catalogued as MS. Mex. d. 1. Scholarly decipherment advanced in the twentieth century through comparative study with related Mixtec codices and ethnohistorical sources. Analyses by archaeologists and art historians have refined readings of personal names, place glyphs, and calendrical notations, while debates persist over exact identifications of some figures, sequences, and political geographies. High-quality facsimiles and digital photography have enabled page-by-page reexamination and new proposals for reading order and chronology.
Date Notes
Late Postclassic, pre-Conquest Mixtec pictorial manuscript; now in the Bodleian Library (Oxford).
Archetypes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw
- Lady Six Monkey
- Lord Four Wind
Myths
- Genealogies of Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw
- Foundations of Tilantongo
- Marriages and Divine Alliances
- Conquests and Ritual Sacrifices
Facts
- Pictorial Mixtec screenfold on deerskin with gessoed surface.
- Preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, catalogued as MS. Mex. d. 1.
- Narrative sequencing guided by red bands and footprint paths.
- Records genealogies, marriages, successions, and military events of Mixtec elites.
- Employs 260-day and 365-day calendrical day signs for names and dates.
- Includes toponymic glyphs linking events to specific towns and sacred places.
- Functions as a dynastic chronicle legitimizing territorial and ritual authority.
- Painted in the Late Postclassic period shortly before or around Spanish contact.
- Comparative readings use related Mixtec codices to identify figures and places.
- Visual conventions include speech scrolls, bloodletting, and regalia to denote status.