When Christopher Columbus first landed on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in December of 1492, it set into motion events which would culminate in the Spanish “conquest” of much of the Americas over the subsequent centuries. Within 150 years, as much as 80% of the Indigenous populations of the regions colonized by Spain had died, victims primarily of rampant disease, as well as colonial violence, forced labor, and slavery.
Prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors on their shores, however, the peoples of Mesoamerica enjoyed vibrant cultures. The region is widely considered to be one of the “cradles of civilization,” where ancient civilizations arose independently, including one of only a handful of regions in the world where written language developed.
Throughout Mesoamerica, this writing took the form of what we now typically call “codices,” a name given in the 19th century to pre-Columbian pictorial manuscripts often made from either paper or animal hide, frequently in long, narrow strips. These are not codices in the strict sense of the word, as a codex is “an ancient book, consisting of one or more quires of sheets of papyrus or parchment folded together to form a group of leaves, or pages” and sewn along one side.