Codex Vaticanus A: Mictlan and postmortem destinations
- Date of account
- 16th-century colonial manuscript
- Location
- Central Mexico; produced in a European colonial manuscript context
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
Codex Vaticanus A, also called Codex Ríos, contains colonial-era descriptions and images relating to Central Mexican cosmology, calendrics, deities, and the destinations of the dead, including material associated with Mictlan. It offers a comparison point for how Indigenous visual traditions were reorganized in a Christian manuscript environment. Its illustrations and Italianate explanatory text do not constitute a transparent pre-conquest record. Scholars continue to assess its source traditions, compiler, informants, and the degree to which European categories shaped the presentation of Indigenous cosmology.
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