“Divinity Perceived: Aztec images of deities in the Founders’ Library, Lampeter”, University of Wales, Lampeter, 17-19 December 2003

Jonathan Trigg, Department of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool

For many archaeologists, a major problem in the study of past civilizations is that we have no direct link to the people, having to content ourselves with the study of material culture and make inferences from this. In the case of the Aztecs, however, we are slightly more fortunate in that we can gain additional valuable information relating to the way they thought from the art that survived the Spanish Conquest.

In an exhibition prepared for the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference, Dr. Penny Dransart combined art and archaeology in organizing a demonstration of the way in which the Aztecs thought of their deities through later representations of the artwork found in Mexican manuscripts, together with depictions of other antiquities. These images were taken from the collections of the Founders’ Library of the University of Wales, Lampeter, the host institution.

Her primary source was Edward King’s, the Viscount Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico0. On viewing a Mexican manuscript in the Bodleian Library, King determined to devote his life to the study of Mexican antiquities. For Antiquities of Mexico, which comprised nine folio volumes, King (1795-1837) commissioned the Italian artist Agustín Aglio to make copies of important documents. It included the first publication of the Mayan Dresden Codex. The set was compiled over twenty years at King’s own expense – four copies being printed on vellum with coloured plates costing him £32,000, eventually bankrupting him. Unable to pay his papermaker, King was arrested and died from typhus in a Dublin debtor’s prison on 27th February 18372.

Her other source for the exhibition was the Jesuit priest and historian Francesco Saverio Clavigero’s History of Mexico3. This he compiled in Bologna when he was expelled (along with the rest of the Society of Jesus) from Mexico in 17674. Clavijero (1731-1787) was one of the most successful early Mexican historians. He was born in Veracruz, and learnt Nahuatl, Otomi, and Mixteca, three indigenous Mexican language families.

These items were among 22,500 volumes which were donated by the library’s principal benefactor, Thomas Phillips (1760-1851), accounting for about two-thirds of the library of the young and struggling theological college at Lampeter. These were received, at intervals, in 60 consignments from March 1834 until February 1852. They were largely bought in bulk in London salerooms and bookshops for immediate despatch to Lampeter. For example, in 1847 Phillips sent down a considerable collection of books which had belonged to Henry Hatcher of Salisbury, an antiquarian.5 These volumes represented a remarkable, but quite random, sample of the products of printing presses in Western Europe from about 14706. Phillips was one of the library’s founders, from which the library’s name is derived, and also endowed a number of scholarships and a Chair of Natural Science in 1852.

Of the images chosen to form the exhibition, only one was of a male deity, Tezcatlipoca. In this sense, it formed an important introduction to some of the female Aztec deities for, as Dransart points out in the catalogue, representations of Aztec deities often concentrate on the important male deities (such as Xipe Totec, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc). In viewing these representations, it is important to understand the basis behind them. Aztec divinities were thought of as being invisible, but present. They revealed themselves to people through dreams and, on certain occasions, human beings presented the deities by dressing in the insignia of the god. In that sense, the illustrated examples were ‘representations of representations of phenomena normally considered present but invisible”7.

What were the aims of this exhibition? Ostensibly, Dransart’s intention has been to introduce a largely non-specialist audience (of the 203 papers presented at the TAG Conference, only two had a Latin American theme) to an important aspect of Mesoamerican studies. Here, she was successful – the reaction of the people visiting the exhibition at the same time as the author was positive, the additional information was well-produced and I understand that the paper catalogues which were available were extremely well-received.

Moreover, a further dimension can be added to the exhibition in that it also gave some important insights into the development of the study of ancient Mesoamerica. In addition, the exhibition demonstrated the erroneous nature of some of King’s academic observations and motivations, particularly with regard to his linking the Jews with the colonization of the Americas. This latter point is of particular interest given the vast amount of research into the “Lost Tribes of Israel” in Mexico.

Divinity Perceived was an important introduction to some aspects of the religious life of the Aztecs. It also demonstrated something of the way in which Mesoamerican archaeology was developed. Perhaps the most important consequence of this exhibition was in encouraging a wider interest in what we now call the Aztecs to a varied audience.

However, the exhibition would have been much more productive had it been more accessible. The location of the exhibition, the Founders’ Library, was away from the hub of the conference and may well have missed out on ‘passing trade’. Furthermore, the opening hours were very limited and obscure. These are, however, minor criticisms, and ones, no doubt, borne out of problems of security, logistics and out-of-term staffing levels, and should not detract from the content and broader aspects of the exhibition.

1 King, E., 1830-48, Antiquities of Mexico: comprising facsimiles of Ancient Mexican paintings and hieroglyphs, London: Robert Havell

2 Boylan, H., 1978, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan

3 Clavigero, F.S., 1979 [1787], The History of Mexico, New York: Garland Press

4 Bandelier, A.F., 1908, ‘Francisco Saverio Clavigero’ in The Catholic Encyclopedia: volume IV, New York: Encyclopedia Press p.8

5 Price, D.T.W., 1975, A History of Saint David’s University College, Lampeter, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, p.183

6 James, B. Ll., 1975, A Catalogue of the Tract Collection of Saint David’s University College, Lampeter, Mansell: London p.xvii

7 Dransart, P.Z., 2003, Divinity Perceived: Aztec images of deities in the Founders’ Library, Lampeter, catalogue produced to accompany the exhibition