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7 The Cosmogony in the Codex Borgia One part of the religious-divinatory corpus that is both unique and especially enigmatic is the eighteen-page section of the Codex Borgia from page 29 through page 46. Most scholars who have offered interpretations or descriptions of this section differ to varying extents on its interpretation; but they all do agree that the eighteen pages form a single unit, which is organized into subsections, seemingly with a beginning and an end. They all recognize its distinct format and orientation and see it as fundamentally different in purpose than the divinatory almanacs that precede and follow it in the codex. Most see it as a sequence of events or rituals (even if not all of them call it a narrative per se), because figures seemingly move from one page to another to carry the ‘‘story’’ along.There is a strong directional movement from page 29 through page 46. The interpretation I advance here is that the section is a cosmogony , one that generally parallels but does not coincide with creation stories that have survived for the Aztecs, Mixtecs, and Maya. The section is oriented perpendicularly to the rest of the codex.The right side of page 29 is the top of the section , and the scenes then read from top to bottom, all oriented to implied ground lines that parallel the fold sides of each page.The reader must therefore rotate the manuscript 90 degrees to the left to view it correctly. No other indigenous-style screenfold shifts its spatial orientation so completely, although a few have scenes that are oriented vertically when the rest of the manuscript reads horizontally.1 This shift in the orientation of the Borgia makes a dramatic visual statement, which signals a fundamental change in the manuscript’s nature . It clearly sets pages 29–46 apart from the rest of the codex. The section also captures our attention because it spans the turning of the codex from front to back. Pages 29–38 are the last ten pages of the obverse, and pages 39–46 then continue for eight pages on the reverse. This is one of only two manuscripts in the entire corpus of Mexican screenfolds with a sequence of material that bridges obverse and reverse. The Mixtec historical screenfolds, with the exception of the Codex Egerton 3895 (Sánchez Solís), have independent narratives on their two sides; the Maya almanacs and the other Mexican almanacs all begin and end with the edges of their paper or hide strips.2 Previous Interpretations Interpretations of this section of the Borgia have focused either on its narrative quality or on the distinc- 172 t h e c o s m o g o n y i n t h e c o d e x b o r g i a tiveness of its individual segments, with some trying to balance the two. Eduard Seler emphasized the narrative quality of the section and saw it as a continuous story played out over the painted pages. Karl Anton Nowotny, in contrast, deemphasized the continuity and instead placed greater emphasis on the relative independence of each scene; he saw the section as depicting a series, but not necessarily a sequence, of distinct rituals. Occupying a middle ground are others who see a sequence of successive rituals: a narrative, as it were, of sequent ritual activity. Seler (1904–1909, 2:1–75, 1963, 2:9–61) was the first to interpret this complex section of the Borgia, and his perspective has continued to be influential, despite strong arguments against his overarching paradigm. Seler’s work remains fundamental to any interpretation , because he offers the most thorough description and iconographic reading of each scene. Moreover, most of his identifications of the participants, their actions , and the physical and architectural settings are sound. It is only when Seler extrapolates from his firstlevel identifications and assigns larger meaning to the scenes that his evidence becomes much weaker. Seler (1963, 2:9–61) saw the vertical section of the Borgia as representing part of the journey of the planet Venus through the heavens and underworld as it passed through its 584-day cycle: specifically from the time of its setting in the east as the Morning Star, through its invisibility and appearance as Evening Star, to its rise once again in the east as Morning Star. Accordingly, he viewed the first four pages as depicting the disappearance...

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