Quest for the Codices

Probably the most famous of the Aztec legends is that of the great Toltec God King Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, a Prometheus/Jesus figure who came to rule the Toltecs after avenging his father, the rightful king's, murder, and is credited with giving many technologies and art-crafts to the Toltec, so much so that the word "Toltec" itself became synonymous with "artisan" or "craftsmen". As identified by Nigel Davies in his book Toltecs Until the Fall of Tula, the Topiltzin story was actually part of a much larger epic, which he calls the "Mixcoatl Saga", that tells of the rise and fall of the Toltec empire in three parts: its founding by the Chichimeca warrior Mixcoatl, its apex under Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, and its fall under Huemac. (I documented the Huemac part of this saga in my paper Huemac: the Legendary Fall of Tollan.)

For a while now I've been collecting English translations of the original, 16th century documentation of this saga. In Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs, H. B. Nicholson identifies 5 major original documents. Of these 5 I've managed to locate 4 translated into English, drawing on the New York Public Library, the NYU library, the New School library and the Columbia Library. Davies expands this list with 8 more minor sources, of which I've managed to find 1 in English. Many of the remaining documents are available at the libraries, but only in the original Spanish, and most look like they may never have been translated into English at all. However, I have not abandoned hope. Here I'm providing a list of all 13 sources, with the ones I've found noted as such. If anyone who reads this page knows where I can find the remaining documents in English, please contact me at ericr@yankthechain.com. Thank you!

Major Sources:
Historia General de las Cosas en Nueva España (1569) by Fray Bernandino de Sahagun - found in a translation from the Nahuatl by John Bierhorst in the volume Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature (1974). FOUND

Anales de Cuauhtitlán (1570) - found in a translation from the Nahuatl by John Bierhorst in the volume the Codex Chimalpopoca (1992). FOUND

La Leyenda de los Soles (1558) - found in a translation from the Nahuatl by John Bierhorst in the volume the Codex Chimalpopoca (1992). FOUND

Historia de los Mexicanos por Sus Pinturas (1532?,1536?) - found translated from the Spanish by Henry Philips, jr. in a volume of the same name (1884). This volume can also be found online at http://www.famsi.org/research/christensen/pinturas/index.html thanks to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies. FOUND

Histoyre du Mechique (1547) - Unfound. A French translation of a lost 16th century original, this text was discovered by famous Frech explorer Andre Thévet. I've found some of Thévet's work translated into English, but not the Histoyre.

Minor Sources

Historia Antigua de México (1780) by Frecesco Saverio Clavigero - found translated from the Italian by Charles Cullen in a volume called History of Mexico (1806, 1817). FOUND

Relación de la Genealogia - Unfound.

Historia de Tlaxcala by Muñoz Camargo (1585) - Unfound. More information about this book can be found here

Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca (1550) - Unfound. More information here: here.

Obras Históricas (1891) by Don Fernando de Alvara Ixtlilxóchitl - Unfound.

Memorial Breve Acerca de la Fundación de la Ciudad de Culhuacan (1631)by Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón Chimalpain Cuauhtlehuanitzin (Chimalpahin) - Unfound.

Monarquía Indiana (1615) by Fray Juan de Torquemada - Unfound.

Historia Antigua de México (1836) by Mariano Veytia - Unfound.

Posted by Eric Rosenfield at May 27, 2003 12:08 AM |