4 lower groups with 40 icons each; total of 160 icons;
upper left with 45 icons;
upper right with 55 icons; some repeats.
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This is not a normal news Blog. It is a record of my efforts to provide an English description of a complex set of 76 painted pages containing no alphbetic content. Get yourself a copy of Codex Borgia if you intend to follow all the details in this independent study.
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Purpose of this blog.
Codex Borgia has 260 places in a spatial matrix of rows and columns. Each place holder is identified by a stylized picture, an icon, in a row-column position. There are 20 different icons in rows of 4 times 13 columns, producing 260 unique positions which can be identified by a word consisting of number-icon as an alternate to pointing to a particular position in the spacial matrix.
One year can be counted by a strange coincidence when the European week of seven days is counted at each matrix position. This number seven is used in counting two extra rows in an illustration on Plate 27 which also illustrates the 365'th day in each year.
The number 13 was probably selected because there are 13 lunar cycles in every agricultural cycle as observed by an intelligent person living in a community which depended on growing part of the daily food. This fundamental cycle is called a year in English. The number of 20 icons is probably related to the use of ten fingers either extended or folded in order to count agricultural products or other items of interest. The icons were used to substitute for a finger count. The unique combinations of 13 and twenty allowed a larger set to be considered. This was a numbering system with numerical base of 260 instead of simply 20 fingers.
This matrix is used in Codex Borgia in four double pages that are illustrated in plates 1 through 8 to provide an unique identity to each passing day in a ritual year of 260 days. The icons are also used in most of the plates in differing arrangements to provide augmented explanations by association with paintings more complicated than icons. The associated paintings are sometimes complex and not easy to explain in the written language which I use for this explanation.
I am attempting to understand the message that is conveyed by Codex Borgia, one of the surviving painted books that were produced in Mexico before the Spanish conquest. It appears to be a series of messages which could be called essays or stories. A blog is presented as I attempt to translate, or explain, the book from icons and pictures into a written language.
One year can be counted by a strange coincidence when the European week of seven days is counted at each matrix position. This number seven is used in counting two extra rows in an illustration on Plate 27 which also illustrates the 365'th day in each year.
The number 13 was probably selected because there are 13 lunar cycles in every agricultural cycle as observed by an intelligent person living in a community which depended on growing part of the daily food. This fundamental cycle is called a year in English. The number of 20 icons is probably related to the use of ten fingers either extended or folded in order to count agricultural products or other items of interest. The icons were used to substitute for a finger count. The unique combinations of 13 and twenty allowed a larger set to be considered. This was a numbering system with numerical base of 260 instead of simply 20 fingers.
This matrix is used in Codex Borgia in four double pages that are illustrated in plates 1 through 8 to provide an unique identity to each passing day in a ritual year of 260 days. The icons are also used in most of the plates in differing arrangements to provide augmented explanations by association with paintings more complicated than icons. The associated paintings are sometimes complex and not easy to explain in the written language which I use for this explanation.
I am attempting to understand the message that is conveyed by Codex Borgia, one of the surviving painted books that were produced in Mexico before the Spanish conquest. It appears to be a series of messages which could be called essays or stories. A blog is presented as I attempt to translate, or explain, the book from icons and pictures into a written language.
Blog Archive
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2008
(34)
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April
(29)
- More comments on organiztion of the Plates.
- Plate 25, Day of 10 Movement.
- Plate 27 showing 365 days in each of the first fou...
- How are the different "tribes" (for want of a bett...
- Plates 9, 10, 11, 12.13.14, re the 20 icons
- Plate 14, nine icons with elaborated picture.
- Plates 15,16,17 top. detail paintungs for sets of ...
- Plate 17; picture at bottom.
- Plates 18, 19,20,21, 8 groups of 4 quadricenas.
- Plate 22 upper half.
- Plate 22 lower half and Plates 23, 24
- Plates 47 and 48.
- Plate 26 focus on Death?
- Plate 28 five paintings and some icons, some damage
- Plates 29, thru 46, a long story on 18 plates.
- Plates 49,50,51,52 and half of 53
- Plate 53 uper left
- Plate 53 lower left and Plate 54.
- Plate 55, six paintings with associated icons
- Plate 56, abbreviated tonalpohualli.
- Plate 57, six couples with multiple icons per couple
- Plates 58,59,60 25 paintings with no simple icons.
- Plates 61,62,63, 64,65,66,67,68,69,70 ; 20 trecenas
- Plate 71, thirtten birds and a painting.
- Plate 72, four quadrants with paintings, 4 icons each
- Plate 73 doubled figures with 20 icons
- Plate 74 two paintings with icons.
- Plates 75, 76; Six paintings presenting columns
- Contingent Table of Contents
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April
(29)
About Me
- Tolteca
- I am a retired Physical Scientist returning to my early interests in Social Science. I now live in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico; and another home in Rosarito Beach, Mexico; and other homes of friends in San Diego, Ca.
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