Tonalamatl

The tonalamatl [toːnaˈlaːmatɬ] is a divinatory almanac used in central Mexico in the decades, and perhaps centuries, leading up to the Spanish conquest. The word itself is Nahuatl in origin, meaning "pages of days".[1][2]

The tonalamatl was structured around the sacred 260-day year, the tonalpohualli. This 260-day year consisted of 20 trecena of 13 days each. Each page of a tonalamatl represented one trecena, and was adorned with a painting of that trecena's reigning deity and decorated with the 13 day-signs and 13 other glyphs. These day-signs and glyphs were used to cast horoscopes and discern the future.

The best surviving examples of tonalamatl are the Codex Borbonicus and the Codex Borgia.

See also

References

  1. ^ León-Portilla (1963) 116-20.
  2. ^ Elżbieta., Siarkiewicz (1995). El tiempo en el tonalamatl. Cátedra de Estudios Ibéricos, Universidad de Varsovia. ISBN 9788386483129. OCLC 45966622.

Bibliography

  • Nowotny, Karl Anton (2005). Tlacuilolli: style and contents of the Mexican pictorial manuscripts with a catalog of the Borgia Group. George A. Everett, Jr. and Edward B. Sisson (trans. and eds.), with a foreword by Ferdinand Anders. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3653-7. OCLC 56527102.
  • León-Portilla, Miguel (1963). Aztec Thought and Culture. Jack E. Davis (trans.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2295-1. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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