The Matrícula de Tributos (English: Tribute roll) is a 16th-century central
Mexican
Mexican may refer to:
Mexico and its culture
*Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America
** People
*** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants
*** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
manuscript on
amatl paper, listing the
tributes paid by the various tributaries of the
Aztec Empire
The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, Help:IPA/Nahuatl, jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua peoples, Nahua altepetl, city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled ...
.
Each page of the 16-page manuscript represents the tribute of one province, read from the bottom left up. The province's major city is listed first; then farther up the page are tributes from cities under the rule of the major city. Each glyph shows the town's or city's tribute item, and indicates how many of the items were contributed in
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
.
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
had people make copies of the tribute roll to learn more about the Aztec economy. 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. It is held in the collection of the
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH, ''National Institute of Anthropology and History'') is a Mexican federal government bureau established in 1939 to guarantee the research, preservation, protection, and promotion of the ...
.
The Matrícula was the source for the tribute section of the
Codex Mendoza.
References
Mesoamerican codices
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