Codex Tovar

The Codex Tovar (JCB Manuscripts Codex Ind 2) is a historical Mesoamerican manuscript from the late 16th century written by the Jesuit Juan de Tovar and illustrated by Aztec painters, entitled (''History of the arrival of the Indians to populate Mexico from the remote regions of the West''). The codex is close in content, but not identical, to the Ramírez Codex. It is currently kept at the John Carter Brown Library, in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Creation and contents

The Tovar Codex was created between 1587 and 1588 by the Jesuit historian Juan de Tovar, who worked under the auspices of the historian José de Acosta. Some letters exchanged between Acosta and Tovar, explaining the history of the manuscript, are present in the volume. It seems that Tovar, who arrived in New Spain in 1573, had been commissioned by the Jesuit order to prepare a history of the Aztec kingdom based on credited indigenous sources; however, his lack of familiarity with the pictographic and hieroglyphic writing system of the Aztec impaired his work considerably. Hence, Tovar met with Aztec historians and manuscript painters (''tlacuiloque'') to transform these pictoglyphic sources into an account more acceptable to the Western historical tradition. The first result of Tovar's historical research was the Ramírez Codex.

Later, in 1583, the Jesuit historian and naturalist José de Acosta arrived in New Spain. He had the intention of gathering manuscripts to prepare himself a history of the Aztec, but failed to procure for himself good manuscripts. Having failed in his task and having left New Spain, he reached out to his colleague Tovar, who was already advanced in the preparation of the ''Ramírez Codex''. He encouraged Tovar to send a copy of his work to King Philip II of Spain, who at the time requested historical works on his American domains to be prepared: hence, the Ramírez Codex remained in Mexico, where it was later re-found, and the ''Tovar Codex'' was sent to Spain, where Acosta used the valuable information from the manuscript to write the section on Aztec history in his more general work ''.''

The Manuscript can be divided in four sections. The first is the epistolary exchange between Acosta and Tovar. The second is the or history proper. The third is a treatise on Aztec religion (). The final part is a calendar showing the Aztec months and correlating them to the European calendar via dominical letters. The contents and illustrations of the first and the historical part are noticeably close not only to the Ramírez Codex, but also to the work of Diego Durán, and Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc. This group of works have been hypothesized by R. H. Barlow to derive from an earlier, lost work, labelled by him as ''.'' Some scholars consider that Tovar derived both of his works from Durán, given the similarities among them, while others hypothesize that both come from the same group of pictographic Aztec documents, now lost.

The historical section of the ''Codex Tovar''

File:Chicomoztoc- The Origins of the Tribes that Settled in or Close to Mexico WDL6717.png, Chicomoztoc, the seven caves of origin at Aztlan
File:Tula WDL6744.png, Tollan
File:Chapultepec Hill WDL6745.png, The battle at Chapultepec
File:The Eagle, the Snake, and the Cactus in the Founding of Tenochtitlan WDL6749.png, The founding of Tenochtitlan
File:Acamapichtli, the First Aztec King (Reigned 1376–95) WDL6718.png, Acamapichtli, the first Aztec tlatoani
File:Huitziláihuitl, the Second Aztec King (Reigned 1395–1417) WDL6719.png, Huitzilihuitl, the second Aztec tlatoani
File:Chimalpopoca, the Third Aztec King (Reigned 1417–27) WDL6720.png, Chimalpopoca, the third Aztec tlatoani
File:Itzcóatl, the Fourth Aztec King (Reigned 1427–40) WDL6721.png, Itzcoatl, the fourth Aztec tlatoani
File:The Battle of Azcapotzalco WDL6746.png, The battle of Azcapotzalco
File:The War against Coyoacan WDL6729.png, The war against Coyoacan
File:An Aztec Noble’s Sacrifice for his Country WDL6747.png, An Aztec noble sacrifices his own life
File:The Funeral Rites of Auitzotl WDL6755.png, The funerary rites of Ahuizotl
File:Moctezuma I, the Fifth Aztec King (Reigned 1440–69) WDL6730.png, Moctezuma, the fifth Aztec tlatoani
File:Tizoc, the Seventh Aztec King (Reigned 1481–86) WDL6722.png, Tizoc, the seventh Aztec tlatoani
File:Axayácatl, the Sixth Aztec King (Reigned 1469–81) WDL6723.png, Axayacatl, the seventh Aztec Tlatoani
File:Auitzotl, the Eighth Aztec King (Reigned 1486–1502) WDL6748.png, Ahuizotl, the ninth Aztec tlatoani
File:The Aztec Ritual Offering Against Drought WDL6750.png, The sorcerers received the water of the Cuextecatl spring
File:Moctezuma II, the Last Aztec King (Reigned 1502–20) WDL6724.png, Moctezuma, the last Aztec emperor

Publication history

During the XIX century, the manuscript left Spain, being bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps circa 1837. Phillips attempted to publish the manuscript, but he was only able to publish 23 pages of the manuscript in an incomplete edition, which is exceedingly rare. In 1946, the manuscript was sold in an auction to the John Carter Brown Library, where it is housed today, although a scholar, Omar Saleh Cambreros, proposes that given some slight differences between Phillipps publication and the current-day manuscript, a possibility exists that the actual ''Tovar Manuscript'' is lost. The manuscript has been published in different occasions: the calendrical section by Kubler and Gibson,{{Cite book, last=Tovar, first=Juan de, title=The Tovar calendar; an illustrated Mexican manuscript ca. 1585., publisher=The Academy, others=Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, v. 11, year=1951, editor-last=Kubler, editor-first=George, location=New Haven, editor-last2=Gibson, editor-first2=Charles and a transcription and a French translation of the whole, along with the plates of the historical section only, by Jacques Lafaye.

See also

* Ramírez Codex

References

Manuscripts
Mesoamerican literature