Codex Borgia

It is considered to be among the most important sources for the study of Central Mexican gods, ritual, divination, calendar, religion and iconography.

[1] It is one of only a handful of pre-Columbian Mexican codices that were not destroyed during the conquest in the 16th century; it was perhaps written near Cholula, Tlaxcala, Huejotzingo or the Mixtec region of Puebla.

[5] It could have reached Europe even earlier, for, as noticed by Franz Ehrle, there is a gloss in page 68 of the codex in wrong Italian which suggest a 16th-century Spanish priest, which uses a manicule or hand sign typical of the era.

After the death of Borgia, these objects became property of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, which created a Borgian museum of its own within its headquarters at the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide.

[3] Stories about the codex prior to its acquisition by Borgia are difficult to verify: oral tradition at the Congregation asserts that it was saved in 1762 from an Auto-da-fé in Mexico, while baron von Humboldt mentions that it belonged to the Giustiniani family, eventually falling into the hands of neglectful servants who damaged the manuscript with fire, only to be saved by Borgia.

In general, the codex presents the associations between time periods, gods, and 'mantic images', or iconography with a divinatory content.

The bottom section of page 17 contains a large depiction of Tezcatlipoca, with day signs associated with different parts of his body.

Prognostications related to different activities being performed by gods, including religious activities (Tonatiuh, Ehecatl), woodcutting (Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli), agriculture (Tlaloc), crossing a river (Chalchiuhtlicue) travelling (red Tezcatlipoca), and the ball-game (black Tezcatlipoca).The upper side of page 22 presents two deer, one white, with closed eyes and surrounded by precious regalia, and other being pierced by a dart or arrow, which gives its name to the section.

[13] It was Karl Anton Nowotny, a disciple of Röck, who first questioned the 'astral interpretation' of Seler's school, partly inspired by Alfonso Caso's work on Mixtec codices, where it was demonstrated that those documents were not astronomical, but historical.

Nowotny's interpretation has become the basis of many subsequent readings, such as those of Ferdinand Anders, Maarten Jansen, and Luis Reyes (1993), who complemented Nowotny's interpretation with ethnographic data and re-interpreted some of the rituals;[3] that of Bruce Byland and John Pohl, who researched the relationship between the rites depicted in this section and the rituals of Mixtec kings;[14] and that of Samantha Gerritse, who offers a narratological analysis.

The 'deer of our flesh' or tonacayo mazatl is a corporeal almanac, associating parts of the human body figured as a deer with day-signs.

[12] Due to the mechanics of the Tonalpohualli, the heliacal rising of Venus can only happen in five day signs: Crocodile, Snake, Water, Reed and Movement.

The interpretation of the iconography of each unit has been related to water (Caiman, Wind, House, Lizard), polities (Snake, Death, Deer, Rabbit), earth and agriculture (Water, Dog, Monkey, Grass), rulers (Reed, Jaguar, Eagle and Vulture), and war (Movement, Flint, Storm, Flower).

The prognostication is given by the iconography: in general, even numbers are unlucky, odd, lucky.A complete tonalpohualli, comprising the twenty 13-day periods which were known as trecenas in Spanish, which some chroniclers considered equivalent to weeks in the Gregorian calendar.

The final page of this section depicts the sun god, Tonatiuh, receiving offerings, and states the sacred flying animals associated to each day.

This almanac depicts the ruling deities of half-trecena periods, enthroned, receiving cult and with associated mantic images.