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The Sanctuary of Night and Wind chapter 7 The Sanctuary of Night and Wind At the end of Part 1 (Chapter 4) we concluded that Tomb 7 was a subterraneous sanctuary that belonged to a Postclassic ceremonial centre on Monte Albán and that this centre appears in Codex Tonindeye (Nuttall), p. 19ab, as a Temple of Jewels. Combining the archaeological evidence with the information from the Ñuu Dzaui pictorial manuscripts we understand that the site was of great religious importance for the dynasty of Zaachila, and particularly for Lady 4 Rabbit ‘Quetzal’, the Mixtec queen of that Zapotec kingdom. The depiction in Codex Tonindeye confirms that this sanctuary was a place for worship of sa- cred bundles but it also indicates that here the instruments for making the New Fire were kept. The Temple of Jewels, therefore, combines a religious fo- cus on the ancestors with one on the cyclical renewal of time. Continuing this line of thought, in Part 2 we explore the historical and ide- ological importance of that ritual. This has led us to discuss the meaning of several other ancient Mesoamerican artefacts, codices and monuments, such as the Roll of the New Fire (Chapter 5) and representations of rituals in Aztec art (Chapter 6). With these detailed case studies, we now confront the chal- lenge to try to say something more about the type of rituals that took place in the Temple of Jewels, so we can get an idea of the religious value of Tomb 7 and the religious experiences that ritual practice entailed. Fortunately, the representations of rituals and their associated symbolism in precolonial picto- rial manuscripts, particularly those of the Teoamoxtli Group (Borgia Group), allow us to reconstruct some of the Mesoamerican ideas and visionary experi- ences. We find specific information about the liturgy of a Temple of Jewels in the screenfold book known as Codex Borgia, which because of its contents we may call the Book of Night and Wind or – using the Nahuatl term – Codex Yoalli Ehecatl.1 The central chapter of this codex (pp. 29–46) presents ‘Temple Scenes’, which pivot around the goddess Cihuacoatl, sacred bundles, visionary experiences, Quetzalcoatl priests and the New Fire ceremony. A large number 1 For general information we refer to the commentaries on the Mexican pictorial manuscripts (with facsimile editions) in the series of Fondo de Cultura Económica, in particular: Anders and Jansen (1993, 1994, 1996ab), Anders, Jansen and Loo (1994), Anders, Jansen and Pérez Jiménez (1992ab, 1994), and Anders, Jansen and Reyes García (1991, 1993), as well as subsequent articles by Jansen (2002, 2012) – all accessible in open access (Leiden University). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi �0.��63/97890043405Maarten Jansen and�7_009 Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 06:27:38PM via free access <UN> 432 chapter 7 of protagonists (partly with human characteristics, partly with divine attri- butes) carry out diverse religiously charged activities. Stylised iconic (‘realis- tic’) representations are combined with symbolic aspects and metaphorical expressions. Clearly the images refer to religious ideas and practices as per- ceived and experienced by the indigenous population before the Spanish con- quest in 1521. In this way, the codex depicts the actions that were performed in the ancient ceremonial centres while also giving insights into the meaning and emotional value of those actions for the performers. From the thematic and iconographic correspondence, we may expect the Codex Yoalli Ehecatl to provide valuable information regarding the contents, function and meaning of the rituals celebrated in Tomb 7. On the other hand, the chapter of the Temple Scenes in itself is generally considered quite enig- matic. Thus we will have to use both sources to illuminate each other recipro- cally. An in-depth analysis of these primary Mesoamerican sources may also throw light on more general questions: How was a place of power conceived and experienced in precolonial Mesoamerica? What role did it play in the structuring of time, which is essential for the construction of memory? Which ritual activities took place there and who were the protagonists? What was the context and structure of the ceremonial centre and cultural landscape, and what the associated symbolism? 1 Historical Background of Codex Yoalli Ehecatl (Borgia) At present the Codex Yoalli Ehecatl (Borgia) is preserved in the Vatican Library (http://digital.vatlib.it/en/view/MSS_Borg.mess.1). The name Codex Borgia re- fers to the Italian cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731–1804), who had the manuscript in his private collection. Alexander von Humboldt wrote that the cardinal had personally saved the codex from children of the servants of the Giustiniani family, who were burning it – supposedly in the nearby Palazzo Giustiniani. Certainly the codex was, at one point, exposed to flames, having a destruc- tive effect on pages 74–76. But its earliest commentator, the Jesuit José Lino Fábrega (1746–1797), working for the cardinal Borgia himself, declared: Among the significant monuments of the oldest nations that together may be admired in the rich and erudite museum of Your Eminence is the Mexican Codex. This rare remnant of the antiquity of that people was lucky enough to escape the flames, as evidenced by its first singed pages; and after having circulated unknown, during many centuries, in American and European markets and cabinets, it fortunately came into Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 06:27:38PM via free access <UN> The Sanctuary Of Night And Wind 433 the hands of Your Eminence, who already for many years wanted to have a monument of that nation.2 This brief reference – which must correspond to the version of cardinal Ste- fano Borgia himself – suggests that the codex was saved from being burnt while still in Mexico, i.e. escaped from the persecution by missionaries in the early colonial period. In other words, it was not the cardinal himself who took it out of the fire. Afterwards, it circulated among different owners in Europe. The reference to markets and cabinets suggests that it was sold and changed owner several times. Before coming into the possession of cardinal Borgia it most probably belonged to some other private collection in Italy, where it was ‘unknown’. The sign of a pointing hand and the handwriting of a gloss in Italian on page 68 are typical of the sixteenth century, suggesting that the codex was already in Italy in that early period. In a recent article, Davide Domenici and Laura Laurencich Minelli (2014) report that, in the early seventeenth century, the Giustiniani family did indeed own a Mexican codex, mentioned in an inventory of 1600–1611 and also in later inventories (until 1649) as ‘Un libro in scorza d’Arboro con varij disegni di colori, e lavori indiani, no. 1’. Although the explicit reference to a book made of tree- bark, i.e. amate paper, would seem to rule out that this could be the Codex Yoalli Ehecatl (Borgia), the authors are right in pointing out that the reference to tree-bark might be a general formula for Mexican books at the time (intro- duced in the literature by the early chronicler Petrus Martyr). The covering layer of gypsum would actually have made it difficult to be completely sure about the material. The fact that, according to one version, cardinal Borgia ob- tained his Mexican book from the Giustiniani family and that the Giustiniani actually used to own a Mexican codex seems to be too much of a coincidence: it is indeed likely that this was the same manuscript. In order to explain the possible way in which this codex came into the pos- session of the Giustiniani family, Domenici and Laurencich Minelli focus on a reference in the chronicle Historie di Bologna (1548) by the local Dominican historian Leandro Alberti to the arrival of fray Domingo de Betanzos from 2 ‘Entre los apreciables monumentos de las Naciones más antiguas que reunidos se admiran en el rico y erudito museo de v. Ema. [Vuestra Eminencia], uno de ellos es el Códice Mexicano. Este raro resto de la antigüedad de aquel pueblo, tuvo la suerte de escapar de las llamas, como lo de- muestran sus primeras páginas chamuscadas; y despues de haber girado desconocido, muchos siglos, por plazas y gabinetes de la América y de la Europa, afortunadamente llegó á las manos de v. Ema., que há muchos años deseaba poseer un monumento de aquella Nación’. (see Anders, Jansen and Reyes García 1993: 37–39). Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 06:27:38PM via free access <UN> 434 chapter 7 Mexico, who presented the pope (Clement vii being in Bologna because of the coronation of the emperor Charles v in March 1533) with gifts ‘from the New World’. These included ‘some nicely painted books that looked like hi- eroglyphs by which they understood each other as we do by letters…. Among these things, I received some books, knives, and the big knife used to kill men to sacrifice them to their idols, which I gave to Mr. Giovanni Achillino to deco- rate his museum together with a book and a stone knife similar to a razor’. The authors point to another reference in the work of the Dominican chron- icler Dávila Padilla, who states that Betanzos received several ‘items of the land’ from the Dominican order in Mexico to take to Europe. Furthermore, in leaving for Europe, Betanzos travelled all the way from Guatemala to Mexico City and from there to Veracruz (via Puebla) and so had had the opportunity to collect or receive these items from the whole Mixteca-Puebla cultural area.
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