Native Painters of an European Book

Complex origins of the pictorial content of the Primeros Memoriales

Authors

  • Katarzyna Granicka University of Warsaw

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.38.07

Keywords:

Aztecs, Nahuas, New Spain, Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, pictographic manuscritps, veintena, festivals, rituals

Abstract

The analysis of the pictorial content of the veintena section of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s Primeros Memoriales may lead to new conclusions about the artists and the process of creating these illustrations. Comparing the illustrations with the description of the festivals in the Primeros Memoriales and the Florentine Codex, identification of scenes and persons and their attributes depicted in the illustrations may also shed interesting light on the affiliation of the manuscript, whose provenance is still under discussion.

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Author Biography

Katarzyna Granicka, University of Warsaw

Is a PHD student at the Warsaw University, the faculty of “Artes Liberales.” She dedicated her master’s thesis to the analysis of the veintena section of the Primeros Memoriales. Currently she is preparing the critical edition of the bilingual (Nahuatl-Spanish) Dominican doctrine from 1548 and investigating the creation of the Christian vocabulary in nahuatl in the early stages of contact. She also participates in the Justyna Olko’s project “Language Encounters between the Old and New Worlds: Language as the medium of cross-cultural transfers in early New Spain.”

References

Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, paleography of Nahuatl text and English transl. by T.D. Sullivan, Norman 1997 (Civilization of the American Indian Series, v. 200, pt. 2).

Baird E.T., The Drawings of Sahagún’s Primeros Memoriales. Structure and Style, Norman 1993.

Batalla Rosado J.J., ‘Datación del Códice Borbónico a partir del análisis iconográfico de la representación de la sangre’, Revista Española de Antropología Americana (UCM, Madrid), Vol. 24 (1994).

Keber E.Q., ‘Reading Images: The Making and Meaning of the Sahagúntine Illustrations’ in J.J. Klor de Alva, H.B. Nicholson, E.Q. Keber (eds.), The Work of Bernardino de Sahagún. Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth‑Century Aztec Mexico, Albany 1998 (Studies on Culture and Society, 2).

Miller M., Taube K., The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion, London 1993.

Olko J., Turquoise Diadems and the Staffs of Office. Elite Costume and Insignia of Power in Aztec and Early Colonial Mexico, Warsaw 2005.

Olko J., Meksyk przed konkwistą, Warsaw 2010 (Rodowody Cywilizacji).

Sullivan T., ‘The Mask of Itztlacoliuhqui’ in Actas del XLI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, México, 2 a 7 septiembre de 1974, Vol. 2, México Cit 1976.

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Published

2015-10-27

How to Cite

Granicka, Katarzyna. 2015. “Native Painters of an European Book: Complex Origins of the Pictorial Content of the Primeros Memoriales”. Politeja 12 (6 (38):87-95. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.38.07.

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 6 (38) (2015): Europe-Latin America Cultural Encounters

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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