TheCodex Telleriano-Remensis, produced in sixteenth-centuryMexico on European paper, is one of the finest surviving examples ofAztec manuscript painting.[1] It holds the earliest written evidence of earthquakes inthe Americas.[2] ItsLatinized name comes fromCharles-Maurice LeTellier,archbishop ofReims, who had possession of the manuscript in the late 17th century.[1]
The codex is held at theBibliothèque nationale de France inParis.
TheCodex Telleriano-Remensis is divided into three sections. The first section, spanning the first seven pages, describes the 365-day solar calendar, called thexiuhpohualli. The second section, spanning pages 8 to 24, is atonalamatl, describing the 260-daytonalpohualli calendar. The third section is a history, itself divided into two sections which differ stylistically. Pages 25 to 28 are an account ofmigrations during the 12th and 13th centuries, while the remaining pages of the codex record historical events, such as the ascensions and deaths of rulers, battles,earthquakes, andeclipses, from the 14th century to the 16th century, including events of earlyColonial Mexico.
The codex contains twelve references to a series of earthquakes that occurred between 1460 and 1542.[2] This was found by Gerardo Suárez and Virginia García-Acosta to be the earliest references to seismic activity in the Americas.[2] Suárez commented that the find was not surprising since earthquakes were both frequent in the area and important toMesoamerican cosmology.[2]
In 1995, a facsimile reproduction of theCodex Telleriano-Remensis made from films was published by theUniversity of Texas Press, with commentary byEloise Quiñones Keber. During the process of photographing and re-binding the manuscript for this publication, two pages were accidentally swapped, and appear as such in the facsimile: page 13, withTecziztecatl on the recto andNahui Ehecatl on the verso; and page 19, withTamoanchan on the recto andXolotl on the verso.[3]
The codex is also available as an electronic document from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.[4]
