New Content for New Audiences: The Repainted Pages and Life History of the Codex Vaticanus B

Summary

In this paper, we discuss the life history and pre-Hispanic modification of the understudied Codex Vaticanus B, commonly attributed to the Borgia group codices. Seven of the manuscript’s 96 pages were covered over with a new white background, composed of different materials than the original, and repainted with several chromatic palettes, likely by different artists. While the manuscript’s structure largely follows that of other Borgia group divinatory almanacs attributed to Nahua peoples from Central Mexico, it is primarily in these repainted pages where the codex deviates from that structure. Through comparative analysis with the corpus of pre-Columbian codices of Mesoamerica, we argue that the repainted scenes exhibit affinity with manuscripts from the more distant regions of southern Puebla and Oaxaca, which were populated by different ethno-linguistic communities. Thus, while the manuscript certainly changed hands over time, it may have circulated more broadly among different cultural groups in doing so. In sum, we suggest that these repainted scenes may reflect appropriations of the ritual knowledge found within the codex and of the power inherent to its material instantiation, while at the same time the manuscript was altered to bring it more in line with particular socio-cultural sensibilities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Mesoamerican Painting: Social Memory on Virtual Display

Keywords

Spatial Coverage