The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Codex Tepetlaoztoc, is a 16th-century

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

n pictorial manuscript detailing the history of Tepetlaoztoc and abuse of the indigenous Tepetlaoztoc population by the Spanish '' encomenderos'' who took control after the

Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistad ...

. It is in the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

History

The manuscript was commissioned by the inhabitants of Tepetlaoztoc and its indigenous governor, Luis de Tepada after the

Spanish colonization of the Americas The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoa, Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella ...

had begun. It was part of a lawsuit brought by Tepetlaoztoc's inhabitants against the Spanish ''encomenderos'', complaining about the mistreatment of the indigenous population, and was probably presented to the Council of the Indies. It consists of seventy-two

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

on European paper, six of which are blank. It was made circa 1550s. At some point the codex came into the possession of the antiquarian and scholar of Mesoamerica Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, after whom the codex is commonly known. After his death in 1837, it was bought by a bookseller named Rodd in 1843, and later bought from him by the

References

* Kingsborough, Codex Artefacts from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the British Museum 16th-century manuscripts Mexico–United Kingdom relations {{manuscript-art-stub