Codex Cospi
Also known as: Codex Bologna, Codex Cospianus, Códice Cospi, Códice de Bolonia
A pre-Columbian Central Mexican ritual and divinatory screenfold, Codex Cospi arranges the 260-day tonalpohualli, a Venus almanac, and deity-offering scenes into a portable priestly manual. Preserved in Bologna, it belongs to the Borgia Group of sacred almanacs.
Description
Codex Cospi is a painted deerskin screenfold from the Puebla–Tlaxcala region, produced in the late Postclassic period just before the Spanish conquest. Its recto opens with an eight-page grid rendering the 260-day tonalpohualli, aligning day signs with the nine Lords of the Night to structure divination. A subsequent section, the Venus Almanac, portrays Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (Venus as Morning Star) shooting darts that portend calamities on specific heliacal risings across long cycles. A short sequence of four gods before temples closes the recto. The verso presents a suite of deities with offerings and counted bundles, likely prescribing ritual quantities and protections for activities such as hunting or safeguarding communities. Stylistic and pigment studies indicate two distinct painting episodes, and historical records trace the manuscript’s early modern trajectory to Bologna, where it entered the Cospian collection. As part of the Borgia Group, Cospi exemplifies Central Mexican priestly knowledge in visual form: calendars, omens, and rites condensed into a single ceremonial book.
Historiography
Scholarly consensus places Codex Cospi within the Central Mexican Borgia Group, with production by eastern Nahua painters in the late 15th to early 16th century. The manuscript shows two painting campaigns (recto and verso) with different palettes and execution, supporting a composite production history. Provenance sources link its arrival in Bologna to Dominican missionary Domingo de Betanzos; it later entered the Cospian collection and is now BUB, ms. 4093. Modern facsimiles (Graz editions) and studies by Nowotny, van der Loo, and others have clarified its structure (tonalpohualli grid, Venus almanac, offering pages) and its relationship to Codex Borgia and related almanacs.
Date Notes
Pre-Columbian divinatory screenfold made by eastern Nahua painters in the Puebla–Tlaxcala region; evidence for two painting campaigns on recto and verso; brought to Bologna in the 16th century.
Archetypes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Tezcatlipoca
- Quetzalcoatl
- Tlaloc
- Xipe Totec
- Mictlantecuhtli
Myths
- Divinatory Almanacs of the 260-Day Cycle
- Venus Tables and Omens
- Rain and Maize Deity Rituals
- Yearbearers and Ceremonies
Facts
- Made of a single deerskin strip c. 3.64 m long, folded accordion-style into 20 pages.
- Recto opens with an eight-page tonalpohualli grid aligning day signs with nine Lords of the Night.
- The Venus Almanac (pp. 9–11) depicts Morning Star risings causing specific misfortunes across a 208-year span.
- Verso pages (21–31) show deities with offerings and counted bundles indicating ritual quantities.
- Painted in two campaigns with distinct palettes and techniques on recto and verso.
- Part of the Borgia Group of Central Mexican ritual almanacs alongside Borgia, Vaticanus B, Fejérváry–Mayer, and Laud.
- Preserved as BUB, ms. 4093 in the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna.
- Provenance links its arrival in Bologna to Dominican Domingo de Betanzos in 1533.
- Functioned as a priestly divinatory manual rather than a narrative chronicle.
- Alternate names include Codex Bologna and Codex Cospianus.