The ''Codex Telleriano-Remensis'', produced in sixteenth-century
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
on European paper, is one of the finest surviving examples of
Aztec
The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...
manuscript painting.
It holds the earliest written evidence of earthquakes in
the Americas
The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...
.
Its
Latinized name comes from
Charles-Maurice Le ''Tellier'',
archbishop of ''Reims'', who had possession of the manuscript in the late 17th century.
[Quiñones Keber (1995): p. 155.]
The codex is held at the in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
Contents
The ''Codex Telleriano-Remensis'' is divided into three sections. The first section, spanning the first seven pages, describes the 365-day solar calendar, called the ''
xiuhpohualli''. The second section, spanning pages 8 to 24, is a ''
tonalamatl'', describing the 260-day ''
tonalpohualli'' calendar. The third section is a history, itself divided into two sections which differ stylistically. Pages 25 to 28 are an account of
migrations during the 12th and 13th centuries, while the remaining pages of the codex record historical events, such as the ascensions and deaths of rulers, battles,
earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
s, and
eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...
s, from the 14th century to the 16th century, including events of early
Colonial Mexico
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French colonial architecture
* Spanish colonial architecture
Automobiles
* C ...
.
The codex contains twelve references to a series of earthquakes that occurred between 1460 and 1542.
This was found by Gerardo Suárez and Virginia García-Acosta to be the earliest references to seismic activity in the Americas.
Suárez commented that the find was not surprising since earthquakes were both frequent in the area and important to
Mesoamerican cosmology.
Publication
In 1995, a facsimile reproduction of the ''Codex Telleriano-Remensis'' made from films was published by the
University of Texas Press
The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is the university press of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly and trade books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Caribbean, Caribbea ...
, with commentary by
Eloise Quiñones Keber. During the process of photographing and re-binding the manuscript for this publication, two pages were accidentally swapped, and appear as such in the facsimile: page 13, with
Tecziztecatl on the recto and
Nahui Ehecatl on the verso; and page 19, with
Tamoanchan on the recto and
Xolotl on the verso.
The codex is also available as an electronic document from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Digital edition
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References
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External links
Bibliothèque nationale de France link.Loubat edition commentary.
{{Aztec mythology
Telleriano-Remensis
Bibliothèque nationale de France collections