The Boturuni Codex is one of the most important sources of Mexican history. This sixteenth-century document describes the centuries-long journey of the Mexica (Aztecs) from their semi-mythical homeland of Aztlan to their eventual capital of Tenochtitlan, the beautiful pre-Columbian island city that would eventually become the massive metropolis of Mexico City.
Like many other pre-Columbian and early colonial books, the Codex Boturini represented time, space, and narrative simultaneously. This project, “Reading the Codex Boturini” was designed to use a combination of digital visualizations and new interactive mapping tools that translate the Codex into forms of space and time that are intelligible to modern audiences.
As Luis Borges noted, all translations are simultaneously copies and new originals. This project aims to aggregate existing knowledge of the codex, thereby copying and retelling a story that has been retold for centuries. At the same time, by highlighting the areas where the translation is ambiguous, or where several interpretations are possible, I hope to expose emic Indigenous understandings of space-time. New forms of knowledge may emerge if we focus on the elements of the migration story that resist translation.