Codex Cospi

Codex Cospi

The Codex Cospi is a brilliantly illuminated manuscript and belongs to one of the five so-called Codex-Borgia-Group. The manuscript is well preserved, painted on rawhide, and protected by two covers from the 17th century, which probably replaced previous wood covers. The artistic style of the Codex Cospi bears relation not only to the painted ceramics of the Nochistlan in the Mixtecan Alta, but also to the style of the Cholula Tlaxcala. The evaluation of style is challenged by an archaeological problem which through excavations to date has been only partially solved.
The front section of the Codex Cospi consists of three parts in which calendar arrangements in tabular form are connected by sequences of pictures. The original empty pages of the back section were at a later date inscribed by hand. Such rituals have been preserved to the present through different acculturative aspects. The selection of days for the rituals is no longer made according to the old calendar but rather according to the different Christian holy days.

Place in the Borgia Group

Although the exact origins of the Codex Cospi are difficult to determine, it is believed to have originated in the Puebla-Tlaxcala region like the rest of the manuscripts of the Borgia Group. It is most similar to the Codex Borgia itself, particularly with regard to the opening sequences and the depiction of a god with two knives for a head. The contents are religious and divinatory in nature with depictions of deities and priests dressed like them while presenting offerings at temple ceremonies. These rituals, intended for gaining good luck and protection, are often depicted with counted bundles in front of the deities. The miniatures have a comic book-like quality and reflect the political situation of Tlaxcallan, which was completely circled by the Aztec Empire but had been deliberately left independent by the Aztecs as a symbol of their magnanimity.