How Can the Codex Borgia Be Decoded?

Chapter 8 summarizes the main points in the volume and suggests specific iconographic patterns that could be studied in the future. The Codex Borgia narrative is especially important because it holds keys to enhancing our understanding of a range of visual imagery in the codices. Discussion of seasonal patterns represented in the narrative highlight the importance of interdisciplinary studies in understanding imagery in the narrative. In 1909, the eminent historian William H. Prescott lamented that the Codex Borgia could not be deciphered. Since then, more than a century of scholarship involving art history, ethnohistory, natural history, and cultural astronomy has made it possible to develop an innovative analysis to “decode” this ancient Mexican masterpiece. The resulting interpretations indicate that astronomy is indeed important in understanding the narrative, although the patterns represented are quite different from those originally proposed by Eduard Seler more than hundred years ago.