Stolen codices and National treasures

Now I have a blogging purpose.

I claim that all codices are stolen propertty.

Most codices are conserved inside national treasuries outside the country from which they were stolen, Mexico. The Mexican Federal government now has laws that prohibit export of the national treasures but Mexico has very few of the codices produced before the 16'th century and stolen by assorted theives.

This problem has recently surfaced through my efforts to publish my studies of other codices of the Borgia group. I hope that the Codex Borgia can be understood in relation to others of the same artistic style. My search led to the Liverpool museum. I have referenced a complete file of my correspondence with that museum to date in my google documents here.

I am still waiting for a published book which I hope will show the original illustrations which I could photograph and use for illustrations on this blog. You can see that the museum in Liverpool says I am not allowed to put pictures on my blog unless they receive a fee!

Maybe academic freedom is not allowed in the British Empire for stolen property!

The image below came from Wikipedia writeup on Codex Fejervary-Mayer but Liverpool museum did not tell me it was there in the public domain!



Please comment regarding this on my blog.

The Liverpool museum did not provide this index to all the pages but google provided a link to an index here.

Contingent Table of Contents

This extensive posting is a complete outline of Table of Contents of Codex Borgia. Each editing of the postings after 30 April 2008 will generate a note in sequence here to show dates of the work in progress. This set of pictorial essays is much too complex for immediate explanation/translation into English words.

This is how I will use the blog format to produce a living document, changing and alive.

The search blog window at the top will assist readers in finding relevant Plates as the study continues.

I am also going to start a wiki, it looks more convenient:

http://mexicancalendars.wikispaces.com

Plates 75, 76; Six paintings presenting columns

This pair of double pages provide a final review of the entire tonalamatl in eight segments. Each segment is correlated with half a trecena and a painting. The pages were damaged but a sequence can easily be deduced from the parts which were not damaged. I have not yet discovered the meaning of the paintings associated with each segment.


Plate 75
Bottom right painting with column 1, Cipactli, in order beneath then dots include six columns;
Bottom left painting with column 8,Tochtli, in order beneath then dots include five columns

Plate 76
Bottom right painting with column 14, Ocelotl, in order beneath then dots include six columns
Bottom left painting with column 21, Cipactli, in order beneath then dots include five columns

Plate 76
Top left painting with column 27, Mazatl, in order beneath then dots include six columns
Top right painting with column 34,Ocelotl, in order beneath then dots include five columns

Plate 75
Top left painting with column 40, Xochitl, in order beneath then dots include six columns
Top right painting with column 47, Mazatl, in order beneath then dots include five columns.

Meaning of these Plates

There are 20 trecenas and these plates are a method of associating painted descriptions with one method of grouping portions of trecenas. The index of grouping is presented on Plates 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8.

Plate 75 presents a subgroup of the first seven columns of days on Plates 1 and 2 with the painting at lower right of Plate 75.

Plate 75 also presents a subgroup of the next six columns of days on Plates 1 and 2 with the painting at lower left of Plate 75.

Plate 76 then presents a subgroup of the first seven columns of days on Plates 3 and 4 with the painting at lower right of Plate 76.

Plate 76 also presents a subgroup of the next six columns of days on Plates 3 and 4 with the painting at lower left of Plate 76.

The upper parts of Plates 75 and 76 have damaged portions but the pattern of association continues.


Plate 76 presents a subgroup of the first seven columns of days on Plates 5 and 6 with the damaged painting at upper left of Plate 76.

Plate 76 also presents a subgroup of the next six columns of days on Plates 5 and 6 with the painting at upper right of Plate 76.

Plate 75 then presents a subgroup of the first seven columns of days on Plates 7 and 8 with the painting at upper left of Plate 75.

Plate 75 also presents a subgroup of the next six columns of days on Plates 7 and 8 with the painting at upper right of Plate 75.

Each icon of the tonalpohualli has been assigned another picture association by these two plates.

Plate 74 two paintings with icons.

The upper figure is female with 6 icons in painting and 14 icons at edge margins.

The lower figure is male with 14 icons in symmetric box arrangement at sides, 5 icons similar to the 20 often seen, a nd o ne which may be interpreted as an enlarged Calli, House.

Plate 73 doubled figures with 20 icons

This elaborate picure of 2 figures bsck to back has the 20 icons attached.
It also has Miauiztli in the lower left corner and a border with 25 icons; first 10 from first trecena of Plate 1 are arranged CCW from Cipactli in lower right corner then continuing with next 5 CCW in top row then continuing CCW with repetition of first 5 after Xochitl in the left row.

Plate 72, four quadrants with paintings, 4 icons each

Plate 71, thirtten birds and a painting.

This painting has identifying A-O icon which assigns date 1 Acatl.