BP Editors
The Codex Mendoza is an extraordinary document with a strange history. It was most likely commissioned by the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza in 1616, and was sent to Spain for the king’s perusal. On its way there, however, the fleet on which it traveled was attacked by French privateers, and the codex, along with other treasures that had been aboard, was taken to France. It lay in obscurity for a few hundred years, eventually making its way to the Bodeleian Library in Oxford.
What makes this book extraordinary is that it was a book about the Aztec people, written by Aztec scribes and informants. It is what some scholars call the first “autoethnography”, a biography of an entire people written by members of the group.
