Another Look at Codex Yanhuitlan: Material, Stylistic, and Historical Considerations on an Early Colonial Pictographic Manuscript

Abstract

The complex material and stylistic composition of Codex Yanhuitlan, a sixteenth-century pictographic manuscript from the Mixteca Alta, is considered against the backdrop of the equally complex and volatile historical situation that followed the establishment of colonial order in the region. It is argued that the codex is an unfinished document that was from the onset drafted in an unusual manner and deeply reworked before being completely disassembled in the eighteenth century.