Duhaime's LawGallery - The Law In Pictures Aztec Court in Session (circa 1500) Object type: Painting Formal Title: Codex Mandoza Creator: unknown Date Created: 1541 Origin: Mexico Current Location: Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Oxford, England After the defeat of Tenochtitlan and the conquest of the Aztecs, the Spaniards sought to create a pictorial record to present to the Spanish king. They hired local artists to draw up how the courts looked, from personal memory, and this formed part of a collection sent to Spain. But the ship carrying the Codex Mendoza, as it later became known, was pirated and the Codex spirited about Europe finally coming into the possession of the law library at Oxford University (Bodleian Library) in England in 1689, who still holds the original. It was safely held but nobody knew what it represented until it's origin and significance was discovered in 1831. Albeit 20-years after the fact, the Codex Mendoza still represents one of the best records we have of law and justice in the ancient and now lost Aztec Empire. In the pictogram is an Aztec court hearing in progress: four Aztec judges with their assistants behind them, facing the litigants. REFERENCES: Duhaime, Lloyd, 1431: Nezahualcoytl's Law Code Duhaime, Lloyd, Military Justice, Aztec Style Duhaime, Lloyd, Hernan Cortez (1485-1547) Duhaime, Lloyd, Law and Justice in the Mayan and Aztec Empires (2,600 BC-1,500 AD) Duhaime, Lloyd, LawMuseum Duhaime, Lloyd, Timetable of World Legal History This page has been viewed 15727 times.