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The Codex Vaticanus A (Vat.Lat.3738) as an object

An intercultural encyclopedia in New Spain and its European legacy

Edited by Sergio Botta (Sapienza University of Rome)

 

Scroll editing by Chiara Florise Amadei (CNR ISPC)

Revision & accessibility by Alfonsina Pagano (CNR ISPC)

This route explores Codex Vaticanus A, a pictographic manuscript produced in New Spain during the second half of the 16th century. The manuscript combines indigenous pictographic tradition with a European encyclopedic interest. Produced in a Dominican missionary context, the codex documents—through exquisite pictographs and rich Italian glosses—the cosmology, rituals, daily life, and history of the Mesoamerican peoples.

 

As it was manufactured collaboratively by a group of Dominican friars and indigenous painters (tlacuiloque), the codex translates pre-Hispanic knowledge into a hybrid form, affirming missionary objectives on the one hand and embodying intense intercultural mediation on the other. Sent to Rome, the manuscript immediately attracted the attention of Italian intellectual and antiquarian circles, who considered it a manifestation of the ingenuity of the native populations.

 

Over time, its influence on European culture expanded, establishing it as a key source for global mythography in the early modern era. The manuscript stood out as a fundamental source for early modern mythography. It is therefore more than just a book: the manuscript reveals its full importance when we observe its “social life” and interpret it as an object that has been able to bridge two worlds.

 

Explore the scrolling journey to learn more!

References

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