The Borgia Group is the scholarly designation of number of mostly

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

documents from central

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. In 1830–1831, they were first published in their entirety as colored lithographs of copies made by an Italian artist, Agustino Aglio, in volumes 2 and 3 of Lord Kingsborough's monumental work titled ''

Antiquities of Mexico ''Antiquities of Mexico'' is a compilation of facsimile reproductions of Mesoamerican literature such as Maya codices, Mixtec codices, and Aztec codices as well as historical accounts and explorers' descriptions of archaeological ruins. It was asse ...

''. They were named the “Codex Borgia Group” by

Eduard Seler Eduard Georg Seler (December 5, 1849 – November 23, 1922) was a prominent German anthropologist, ethnohistorian, linguist, epigrapher, academic and Americanist scholar, who made extensive contributions in these fields towards the study of p ...

, who in 1887 began publishing a series of important elucidations of their contents. The manuscripts have survived despite their having reached Europe at an early date. They are distinguished by their

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

content, while the pre-Columbian codices of the Mixtec group are principally

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

. The place of origin and the linguistic identity of the creators of the codices have been subject to debate, but may well be Puebla - Tlaxcala - Western Oaxaca.Glass, John B. in collaboration with Donald Robertson. "A Census of Native Middle American Pictorial Manuscripts". article 23, ''Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources'' Part 3; ''Handbook of Middle American Indians''. University of Texas Press 1975, census #33 pp. 98-100 The main members of the Borgia Group are: *The

Codex Borgia The Codex Borgia ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Borg.mess.1), also known as ''Codex Borgianus'', ''Manuscrit de Veletri'' and ''Codex Yohualli Ehecatl'', is a pre-Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript from Central Mexico featuring calendrica ...

, after which the group is named. The codex is itself named after Cardinal

Stefano Borgia Stefano Borgia (3 December 1731 – 1804) was an Italian Cardinal, theologian, antiquarian, and historian. Life Cardinal Borgia belonged to a well known family of Velletri, where he was born, and was a member of the collateral branch of House ...

, who owned it before it was acquired by the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

. *The Codex Cospi. *The

Codex Fejérváry-Mayer The Codex Fejérváry-Mayer is an Aztec Codex of central Mexico. It is one of the rare pre-Hispanic manuscripts that have survived the Spanish conquest of Mexico. As a typical calendar codex ''tonalamatl'' dealing with the sacred Aztec calendar � ...

. *The

Codex Laud The Codex Laud, or Laudianus, (catalogued as ''MS. Laud Misc. 678'', Bodleian Library in Oxford) is a sixteenth-century Mesoamerican codex named for William Laud, an English archbishop who was the former owner. It is from the Borgia Group, and is ...

. *The

Codex Vaticanus B Codex Vaticanus B, ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat.Lat.773) also known as ''Codex Vaticanus 3773'', ''Codice Vaticano Rituale'', and ''Códice Fábrega'', is a pre-Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript, probably from the Puebla part of th ...

. Also sometimes included are: *The Aubin Manuscript No. 20, or

Fonds mexicain 20 In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...

. *The

Codex Porfirio Díaz The Codex Porfirio Díaz or ''Códice de Tututepetongo'' is a colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscript, consisting of a 10-page vellum screenfold. It is sometimes included in the Borgia Group The Borgia Group is the scholarly designation of nu ...

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

GBonline , Borgia Group of Codices
* ttp://00.gs/sequence_of_codex-sections.htm proper sequence of sections of codices in the Borgia group {{mesoamerica-stub