Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I.
Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (25)
A Pre-Contact Codex
In the Codex Vindobonensis, a manuscript that predates the Spanish Conquest, the Mixtec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, illustrate how their gods created the world. According to their cosmology, the first humans were the Primordial Twins. One Deer, shown here with the magic incense copal and ground tobacco, created the Mother and the Father of the Gods. Mother and Father then made four men and an entire constellation of spirits for crops, fire, smoke, forests, and other aspects of nature and the world. Displayed here is a facsimile of the original, which is in the Vienna National Library.