Lienzo of Quetzpalan Codex, 1570

Much of what we know about the Aztecs comes from their beautiful, hand-painted manuscripts, or codices (singular: codex). In their codices, Aztec painter-scribes used a form of picture writing. This “writing” included pictograms, phonetic signs, religious emblems, and even mathematical symbols. During the initial years of Spanish rule, many codices were destroyed, especially those that documented Aztec rituals. Today only a few pre-Hispanic painted books from Mexico survive. This codex, known as the Lienzo of Quetzpalan, was produced as part of a large-scale geographic survey of Mexico ordered by the Spanish government in the 1570s.

Guggenheim Museum: The Aztec Empire: The Twilight of the Empire