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Book/Printed Material Aubin Tonalamatl. Tonalamatl

About this Item

Title

  • Aubin Tonalamatl.

Other Title

  • Tonalamatl

Summary

  • The Aubin Tonalamatl is a pictorial codex that reads from top to bottom and from right to left. It originally included another two folios that have since been lost. The Tonalamatl (bark paper [or book] of the days) was used by Aztec priests in a divination ritual. Tonalli means "day" and amatl refers to paper made from the inner bark of trees of the genus Ficus. The work contains a religious calendar of 260 days, the Tonalpohualli, which was used as a ritual and daily devotional for the celebration of holidays and served as the basis of astrological birth-chart predictions. This liturgical calendar was part of a collection owned by Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci (1702-51) that was confiscated on his expulsion from New Spain in the mid-1740s. The codex appears to have passed through several hands before it was sold for 2,000 francs to Americanist Alexis Aubin on October 24, 1841, who purchased it from Frédéric de Waldeck; Waldeck had owned the manuscript since the early 1800s. Eugène Goupil, of Mexican and French origin, purchased Aubin's large collection of Mesoamerican manuscripts, including this work, in 1889, and his widow donated it to the National Library of France in 1898. This precious manuscript was subsequently stolen and is currently in Mexico. Mexican authorities, who are refusing to return it, have entrusted it to the country's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1400 to 1599]

Headings

  • -  Mexico
  • -  1400 to 1599
  • -  Aztec calendar
  • -  Aztec gods
  • -  Aztec mythology
  • -  Aztecs
  • -  Codex
  • -  Indigenous peoples
  • -  Mesoamerica
  • -  Pictorial works
  • -  Religion
  • -  Rites and ceremonies
  • -  Rituals

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Reference extracted from World Digital Library: Frederick Starr, "Review of The Tonalamatl of the Aubin Collection: An Old Mexican Picture Manuscript in the Paris National Library. With Introduction and Explanatory Text by Eduard Seler," American Anthropologist, New Series 4, no. 1 (January-March 1902): 145-47.
  • -  Original resource at: National Library of France.
  • -  Content in Classical Nahuatl.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021668125

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Aubin Tonalamatl. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1599, 1400] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668125/.

APA citation style:

(1400) Aubin Tonalamatl. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1599] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668125/.

MLA citation style:

Aubin Tonalamatl. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1599, 1400] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021668125/>.