Codex Bodley

Codex Bodley

Detail of page 21 from the codex
Material	Animal skin
Size	28 cm high by 31 cm wide
Created	14th-15th Centuries AD
Present location	Bodleian Library, Oxford
Registration	MS Mex. d. 1

The Codex Bodley is an important pictographic manuscript and example of Mixtec historiography. It was named after the colloquial name of the Bodleian Library, where it has been stored since the 17th century.

While the exact date of its creation is difficult to establish, judging from its content and style, it was completed before the 1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico. The history of the Codex Bodley before becoming part of the Bodleian Library's collection at the beginning of the 17th century is not known. J. Eric Thompson, British archaeologist and Mayan expert, has suggested that the manuscript's previous owner was Bishop Heronymous Osorius of Faro, Portugal. The codex may have been looted by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and given to his friend Thomas Bodley in the sixteenth century.

The Bodleian Library holds four other Mesoamerican codices: Codex Laud, Codex Mendoza, Codex Selden and the Selden Roll.

The codex is made of deerskin that is 6.7 metres or 22 feet long. The animal skin was folded accordion style to form the distinct pages. Each page was then covered with a white base paint coat and then divided with red bands that extend horizontally. The obverse has five bands while the reverse is only divided into four. The condition of the codex has faded over time with many of the pages missing parts of the pictography.

The manuscript can be read from right to left on two sides; the obverse and the reverse. The obverse consists of pages 1 through 20 while the reverse starts on page 40 and finishes on page 21. The obverse ends with a genealogy and names Lord Four Deer as the last lord of the Tilantongo dynasty. On the other hand, Page 21 of the reverse names Lord Eight Grass as being the last king of Tiaxiaco. Eight Grass's name-glyph is at bottom center, above the 9-Deer glyph (photo).