Codex Borbonicus
Also known as: Codice Borbonicus, Codex Borbonicus (Aztec), Codice Borbonico, Codice Borbonico Mexica, Codice Borbonicus Tonalamatl, Codigo Borbonicus, Codice Borbonicus (Tonalamatl), Codice Borbonicus (Xiuhpohualli), Códice Borbónico
A Mexica pictorial divinatory and ritual almanac, the Codex Borbonicus presents the 260-day tonalamatl with its trecenas and patron deities, the solar year’s eighteen month-festivals, and the New Fire binding-of-years rite.
Description
Codex Borbonicus is a screenfold painted manuscript that visualizes sacred time and ritual obligation in the late Aztec world. Its opening folios comprise a tonalamatl: twenty trecenas arranged for divination, each governed by specific deities and day-signs. Subsequent sections depict the xiuhpohualli festivals of the eighteen 20-day months, showing offerings, costumes, and sacrificial duties owed to rain, maize, war, and hearth gods. A culminating sequence illustrates the xiuhmolpilli or New Fire ceremony, when the calendar cycle was “bound” and cosmic order renewed. The codex blends calendrical science with theology, embedding omen-reading, agricultural timing, and imperial cult in a single ritual cartography.
Historiography
Only one exemplar is known, preserved as a post-Conquest holding; its pictography is widely considered pre-Hispanic while several alphabetic glosses appear colonial. Scholarly analysis compares its iconography with Borgia Group manuscripts and with Sahagún’s textual descriptions. Modern facsimiles and studies by Mexican and European scholars have refined readings of trecena patrons and veintena rites. The manuscript remains a cornerstone for reconstructing Mexica ritual calendars and divinatory practice.
Date Notes
Pictorial tonalamatl and ritual almanac executed on amatl; likely painted on the eve of the Spanish invasion with some later alphabetic glosses added post-Conquest.
Archetypes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Huitzilopochtli
- Tlaloc
- Quetzalcoatl
- Xipe Totec
- Tonatiuh
Myths
- Creation of the Five Suns
- Tonalpohualli Divinatory Almanac
- New Fire Ceremony
- Feasts of the Gods
Facts
- Pictorial almanac on amatl paper in accordion (screenfold) format.
- Opens with a 260-day tonalamatl used for divination and day-keeping.
- Depicts eighteen veintena month-festivals of the solar year with offerings and costumes.
- Includes scenes of the New Fire “binding of years” renewal rite.
- Patron deities preside over trecenas, pairing day-signs and omens.
- Imagery aligns closely with the Borgia Group codices while reflecting Mexica state cult.
- Alphabetic glosses were added after contact, aiding later interpretation.
- Served priest-diviners (tonalpouhqueh) in scheduling rites, warfare, and agriculture.
- Iconography encodes astronomy, seasonal rainfall cycles, and imperial ideology.
- Single surviving manuscript; modern scholarship relies on comparative codicology.