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Double Registers 4 (left) and 1 (right)

Double Registers 4 (left) and 1 (right)

This Techialoyan manuscript is a member of the subgroup that was made in double registers. Here we see what someone has numbered as double register 1 (on the right) and double register 4 (on the left). Turning these leaves over, one would find register 2 and 3. The edges are frayed and have fragments missing; this is especially the case with double register 1. How these leaves were nested originally is open to study, but at some point someone glued page numbers onto the corners of the top half of the double registers. Three of the scenes in this grouping (1, top and bottom, and 4, top) involve indigenous men in various activities. In 1-top, we see two indigenous men, dressed as though living in the Spanish colonial era, standing next to a building. In 1-bottom, we have a baptism scene with three indigenous men standing in the background and three kneeling before a Spanish friar, performing the baptism, and a Spanish conqueror in armor, appearing to assist with the baptism. This scene would be an early colonial activity. The scene in 4-top shows two men standing in a rural setting, both wearing cotton clothing typical of the Spanish colonial period. Two birds appear near them, somewhat large and looking away from the men. The land at this place is said to be long to the altepetl (town). The fourth scene, 4-bottom, is a rural scene of trees and bushes. The text explains that the place intended by these trees measured 800 mecatl (cords) and was land pertaining to the people of the altepetl. [SW]