Matrícula de Tributos

There has been debate among scholars as to when the Matrícula was made with many differing opinions on the origins of the document being offered over the decades.

Robert Barlow in 1949 argued that it was a colonial document newly painted for Cortes due to the European format of the manuscript.

In 1963 Woodrow Borah and Sherburn Cook had postulated that both the Matrícula and Codex Mendoza were copied from another preconquest document during colonial times.

[2] In 2021 Jorge Gómez Tejada put forth the newest hypothesis, that the folios date to multiple periods, several from just at the end of preconquest and others as late as 1560, his analysis found several folios whose art styles seemed to have European influence, drawing humans and zoomorphic glyphs with Europeanized features not depicted in Codex Mendoza which follows more pre-Columbian tradition.

[3] Several decades after its painting the Matrícula was used as a reference for Codex Mendoza's tribute section, several pages disappeared after this time.

[3] With its hundreds of tribute glyphs, the Matrícula is considered an important document in the study of Nahuatl and Aztec culture, mathematics, governance, economy and geography.

[2] Batalla Rosado argues that 1 of the scribes from the Matrícula is the same painter charged with creating the Codex Mendoza possibly named Francisco Gualpuyogualcal.

Folio 9r of the Matrícula de tributos.
Folio 2r of the Matrícula de tributos depicting the relationship between Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, this folio has evidence of European influence from the features of the humans painted (squared jaws, expressive eyebrows, and long noses).
Folio 10v of the Matrícula de tributos, this unique page depicts 3 provinces instead of 1: Tlalcoçauhtitlan, Quiauhteopan, and Yoaltepec.
Folio 4r of the Matrícula de tributos, one of the pages painted by the Mixtec scribe.