Aztec Medicine, Codex Magliabechiano, 16th Century

Aztec Medicine, Codex Magliabechiano, 16th Century

Aztec medicine, taken from the Codex Magliabechiano. Two patients explain their troubles to a doctor. The doctor discovered the cause of the illness by throwing grains of corn onto a piece of cloth (or into a vessel containing water). According to how the grains scattered or floated determined cause. The Aztec medicine recognized three main causes of illness and injuries: 1) supernatural - involving the displeasure of the gods or excess and imbalance with the supernatural and natural worlds, 2) magical - involving malevolent curses and sorcerers and 3) natural or practical causes. Establishing a treatment for any given ailment depended first upon determining the nature of its cause. The Aztecs knew of and used an extensive inventory consisting of hundreds of different medicinal herbs and plants. The Codex Magliabechiano is a pictorial Aztec codex created during the mid-16th century, in the early Spanish colonial period. The Codex Magliabechiano is primarily a religious document. Its 92 pages are almost a glossary of cosmological and religious elements.

AZTEC

Album / Science Source / New York Public Library

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3600 x 2838 px | 29.2 MB

30.5 x 24.0 cm | 12.0 x 9.5 in (300 dpi)