Review by Choice Review
Anthropologist Williams (Texas State Univ., San Marcos) continues his meticulous study of the Mixtec Indian codex Zouche-Nuttall from Oaxaca. This second volume complements Williams's eponymous Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan (CH, Sep'10, 48-0443). Page by page, Williams's textual analysis deciphers the sophisticated narrative structure, content, and chronologies of the pictogram sequences in the 84-page codex. He commences with annotations to the earliest European description of the Mesoamerican codices, likely sent to Charles V of Spain by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes via Peter Martyr d'Anghiera in his De Orbe Novo (1530). A history of the manuscript follows, including its previous owners, scholarly studies, and subsequent editions. Williams compares Mesoamerican historical records to modern storyboards composed to represent encoded culture. The local histories, like the War from Heaven in 963 CE, combine myth and history. This new edition of the codex, perhaps the best and most updated, with explanations of the text, includes the complete photos of the codex as well as appendixes with details on Mixtec and Aztec solar and lunar calendrical cycles and correlations. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty. R. A. Santillan Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
