Codex Chimalpopoca Facsimile Edition

The Codex Chimalpopoca is one of the most significant colonial-period Nahuatl manuscripts ever produced in central Mexico. Written in the Nahuatl language using the Latin alphabet, it preserves some of the most important indigenous accounts of Aztec history, mythology, and cosmology. Although the manuscript itself was lost in the mid-20th century, its contents are known through earlier photographs and transcriptions. The Codex Chimalpopoca combines three separate works: the Anales de Cuauhtitlán, the Breve relación de los dioses y ritos de la gentilidad, and the Leyenda de los Soles.

Historical Context and Origin

The Codex Chimalpopoca was created in post-Conquest central Mexico, likely within the Valley of Mexico, by Nahua scribes trained in the colonial alphabetic tradition. Its production reflects a transitional moment when indigenous historians began recording pre-Hispanic oral and pictorial traditions using the Roman alphabet introduced by Spanish missionaries.

The manuscript that disappeared in the 20th century was itself a colonial copy—a handwritten compilation that brought together texts originating in the mid-16th century. The Leyenda de los Soles includes an internal date of 1558, while the Anales de Cuauhtitlán are typically dated to the 1560s–1570s. The physical codex, however, was probably produced in the late 16th or early 17th century, possibly by scribes connected to the Ixtlilxochitl circle in Texcoco or by Nahua clerics in Cuautitlán.

Physical Description of the Lost Manuscript

Contemporary accounts describe the lost codex as a bound manuscript written on European paper, measuring roughly 22 cm high by 15 cm wide. The pages were slightly yellowed and worn, and the text was written in a single Nahuatl hand with a small Spanish section in a different script. No pictographic images were included — the entire manuscript was alphabetic.

Before its disappearance, the manuscript was photographed in 1945 by Primo Feliciano Velázquez, whose facsimile edition now serves as the principal witness to its appearance and contents.

Contents of the Codex Chimalpopoca

The codex contained three distinct works, each of immense importance for Mesoamerican studies:

• Anales de Cuauhtitlán (Annals of Cuautitlán): A chronological Nahuatl history covering pre-Hispanic and early colonial events from a central-Mexican perspective. It provides annalistic records of rulers, migrations, and mythic origins linked to Cuautitlán and the broader Mexica world.
• Breve relación de los dioses y ritos de la gentilidad: A brief Spanish essay describing indigenous deities and religious practices, possibly composed by a Christianized Nahua author such as Pedro Ponce de León. This section bridges indigenous cosmology with early colonial religious discourse.
• Leyenda de los Soles (Legend of the Suns): A mythological narrative recounting the creation and destruction of successive cosmic eras, culminating in the present “Fifth Sun.” It is the most complete Nahuatl version of the Aztec creation myth and includes the famous date 1558, marking it as one of the earliest colonial Nahuatl compositions.

Provenance and Disappearance

The Codex Chimalpopoca has a complex provenance. It likely circulated in learned Nahua circles during the late 16th and early 17th centuries before entering the hands of later antiquarians. By the 18th century, a manuscript matching its description was recorded in the collection of Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci, who gathered numerous indigenous documents in New Spain. Later, Antonio de León y Gama copied parts of it in the late 1700s.

The codex entered the holdings of Mexico’s Museo Nacional (later INAH) during the 19th century. Scholars such as Walter Lehmann and Primo Feliciano Velázquez studied it in the early 20th century, with Velázquez publishing a photographic facsimile in 1945. Sometime shortly afterward — probably between 1945 and 1949 — the original manuscript disappeared from the national collections and has never been recovered.

Historical Importance of the Codex Chimalpopoca

Even though the physical codex is lost, the Codex Chimalpopoca remains a cornerstone of Nahuatl literature and Mesoamerican historiography. It preserves a rare indigenous viewpoint on Aztec history and cosmology, predating many Spanish chroniclers. The Leyenda de los Soles is one of the few surviving Nahua accounts of the cosmic ages, while the Anales de Cuauhtitlán provides a crucial chronological framework for pre-Conquest central Mexico.

Modern editions — particularly the Velázquez facsimile (1945) and John Bierhorst’s translation, History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex Chimalpopoca (1992) — ensure continued access to this essential text.

Legacy of a Vanished Codex

The lost Codex Chimalpopoca embodies the intersection of indigenous tradition and colonial writing. Produced by Nahua intellectuals within a few decades of the Spanish conquest, it stands as one of the earliest written records of Mexica cosmology and annalistic history. Although the original manuscript vanished in the mid-20th century, its photographed pages and scholarly editions continue to reveal the sophistication of early Nahua historiography and the resilience of indigenous memory in colonial Mexico.