Research Projects by Alicia Maria Houtrouw
https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/, 2023
The Digital Florentine Codex gives access to a singular manuscript created by Franciscan friar Be... more The Digital Florentine Codex gives access to a singular manuscript created by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and a group of Nahua elders, authors, and artists. Written in parallel columns of Nahuatl and Spanish texts and hand painted with nearly 2,500 images, the encyclopedic codex is widely regarded as the most reliable source of information about Mexica culture, the Aztec Empire, and the conquest of Mexico. Upon completion in 1577 at the Imperial Colegio de la Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco (today Mexico City), the manuscript was sent to Europe where it entered the Medici family’s library in Florence—thus, the Florentine Codex. This digital edition unlocks the manuscript’s content by making the texts and images searchable.
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El Códice Florentino Digital da acceso a un manuscript singular creado por el fraile franciscano Bernardino de Sahagún y un grupo de principales, autores y artistas nahuas. Escrito en columnas paralelas de textos en náhuatl y español y pintado a mano con casi 2,500 imágenes, el códice enciclopédico es considerado la fuente de información más confiable sobre la cultura mexica, el imperio azteca, y la conquista de México. Una vez completado en 1577 en el Imperial Colegio de la Santa Cruz en Tlatelolco (hoy Ciudad de México), el manuscrito fue enviado a Europa, donde ingresó a la biblioteca de la familia Medici en Florencia—por eso el Códice florentino. Esta edición digital hace accesible el contenido del manuscrito a través de la búsqueda de textos e imágenes.
Papers by Alicia Maria Houtrouw
Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, 2023
Mesoamerican books inhabit multiple visual and bibliographical spaces that defy simple descriptio... more Mesoamerican books inhabit multiple visual and bibliographical spaces that defy simple descriptions and straightforward categorization. Historical annals, divinatory calendars, speeches, poems, and songs informed the history, culture, and ritual life of pre- and post-contact societies. Since the sixteenth century, reproduction of Mesoamerican books has played a role in shaping ideas about race, ethnicity, and culture, as well as effects of settler colonialism in the Americas. Efforts to replicate Mesoamerican books for new audiences, however, have not always followed the same principle. Narratives of exploration, empire, and state formation have often appropriated the Mesoamerican book to fulfill political or religious agendas that have decontextualized the original use of pictorial and alphabetic manuscripts. The themes explored in this Dialogues propose new ways to think about analytical frameworks used to make sense of the content of Mesoamerican books in the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries. Who possessed the intellectual credentials to write about and copy pictorial records? What aspects of Mesoamerican books have made the replication process so complex and contested? How have naming, cataloging, and preservation of manuscripts and their fragments shaped our understanding of ideas of authenticity, originality, authorship, and knowledge? How can digital technologies reshape our experience with pictorial records? Contributors engage with these questions not only to historicize violence and displacement associated with Indigenous books after European contact but to highlight the way the publication of facsimiles helped and continues to help establish intellectual credentials, center historical narratives and popular ideas about culture, and generate funding for individuals and institutions.
Getty Research Journal, 2019
The following coauthored indigenous tale about two lovers-an Inca ñusta (princess), Chuquillanto,... more The following coauthored indigenous tale about two lovers-an Inca ñusta (princess), Chuquillanto, and a humble shepherd, Acoytapra-was recorded around the turn of the seventeenth century in colonial Peru. The story's meaning is layered, having been written and illustrated by two people of vastly different backgrounds: the drawings by a native Andean man and the writing by a Spanish friar. Although the images complement the text by illuminating events in the written tale, the artist applies his knowledge of the native Andean belief system and Inca visual culture by inserting additional meanings into the illustrations and communicating visually what the Spanish author cannot. Even though both authors eventually arrive at the same conclusion-that Acoytapra and Chuquillanto's relationship is impossible-each values this outcome for distinct reasons. Their diverging interpretations of the legend help us to see how each author engaged with the story to further his own ideology and mission. Furthermore, the illustrator's role in the retelling of this myth shows how an indigenous artist and author negotiated his relationship with Spanish authorities and asserted his indigenous knowledge in a colonial context. Below is a summary of the tale Ficción y suçesso de un famosso pastor llamado el gran Acoytapra con la hermossa y discreta Chuquillanto, ñusta, hija del sol (Legend and account of a famous shepherd named the great Acoytapra with the beautiful and discreet Chuquillanto, princess, daughter of the sun). 1-One day, as the shepherd Acoytapra was tending his herd, he was unexpectedly approached by two daughters of the sun. The eldest, Chuquillanto, was drawn to the shepherd, who wore on his forehead a canipu (silver pendant) with an image of two aradores (plowers) 2 eating a heart. He told Chuquillanto it was called an utusi, which the narrator explains may be slang for the genital member, an old word invented by lovers. She was intrigued by his strange ornament and talked to her sister about the shepherd until arriving back at the palace. That night, Chuquillanto had no appetite and thought incessantly about the shepherd. When she finally fell asleep she dreamt that a nightingale flew to her lap and spoke to her. Chuquillanto explained to the bird that she could only be cured of what ailed her if she pursued her love for the shepherd, but that her father would kill her if she did.
The Getty Research Journal, vol. 11, 2019
The following coauthored indigenous tale about two lovers-an Inca ñusta (princess), Chuquillanto,... more The following coauthored indigenous tale about two lovers-an Inca ñusta (princess), Chuquillanto, and a humble shepherd, Acoytapra-was recorded around the turn of the seventeenth century in colonial Peru. The story's meaning is layered, having been written and illustrated by two people of vastly different backgrounds: the drawings by a native Andean man and the writing by a Spanish friar. Although the images complement the text by illuminating events in the written tale, the artist applies his knowledge of the native Andean belief system and Inca visual culture by inserting additional meanings into the illustrations and communicating visually what the Spanish author cannot. Even though both authors eventually arrive at the same conclusion-that Acoytapra and Chuquillanto's relationship is impossible-each values this outcome for distinct reasons. Their diverging interpretations of the legend help us to see how each author engaged with the story to further his own ideology and mission. Furthermore, the illustrator's role in the retelling of this myth shows how an indigenous artist and author negotiated his relationship with Spanish authorities and asserted his indigenous knowledge in a colonial context.
Upcoming Events by Alicia Maria Houtrouw
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Research Projects by Alicia Maria Houtrouw
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El Códice Florentino Digital da acceso a un manuscript singular creado por el fraile franciscano Bernardino de Sahagún y un grupo de principales, autores y artistas nahuas. Escrito en columnas paralelas de textos en náhuatl y español y pintado a mano con casi 2,500 imágenes, el códice enciclopédico es considerado la fuente de información más confiable sobre la cultura mexica, el imperio azteca, y la conquista de México. Una vez completado en 1577 en el Imperial Colegio de la Santa Cruz en Tlatelolco (hoy Ciudad de México), el manuscrito fue enviado a Europa, donde ingresó a la biblioteca de la familia Medici en Florencia—por eso el Códice florentino. Esta edición digital hace accesible el contenido del manuscrito a través de la búsqueda de textos e imágenes.
Papers by Alicia Maria Houtrouw
Upcoming Events by Alicia Maria Houtrouw
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El Códice Florentino Digital da acceso a un manuscript singular creado por el fraile franciscano Bernardino de Sahagún y un grupo de principales, autores y artistas nahuas. Escrito en columnas paralelas de textos en náhuatl y español y pintado a mano con casi 2,500 imágenes, el códice enciclopédico es considerado la fuente de información más confiable sobre la cultura mexica, el imperio azteca, y la conquista de México. Una vez completado en 1577 en el Imperial Colegio de la Santa Cruz en Tlatelolco (hoy Ciudad de México), el manuscrito fue enviado a Europa, donde ingresó a la biblioteca de la familia Medici en Florencia—por eso el Códice florentino. Esta edición digital hace accesible el contenido del manuscrito a través de la búsqueda de textos e imágenes.