Codex Mendoza
Colonial · Oxford
What it is
Commissioned around 1541 by viceroy Antonio de Mendoza to be sent to the Spanish court. Three parts: the history of the tlatoque from the founding, the list of tribute from each province, and the daily life of a person from birth to death.
Its tribute section counts 371 cities in 38 provinces, and what each one handed over every eighty days.
For the emperor
There are sixty-three paintings, and the viceroy further ordered their explanations in the Mexican and Spanish tongues, to be sent to the emperor.
Where what we know about schooling comes from
That third part is the main source of what is known about education: the telpochcalli, the calmécac and what was taught in each.
And the codex apologises on its last folio: «no se dio lugar al ynterpretador de nyngun vagar» — the interpreter was given no leisure at all.
Where it is
In the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It had an eventful journey: the ship carrying it to Spain was taken by French corsairs, and so it ended up in France and later in England.
Read this entry in Spanish, where the sixteenth-century sources are quoted in full.
How to cite this page
Alma Mexica, «Codex Mendoza», The codices. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/codex/mendoza/