Codex Fejerv?ry-Mayer depicts specific aspects of the tonalpohualli, the sacred 260-day Mesoamerican augural cycle. The painted manuscript divides the world into five parts. T-shaped trees delineate compass points: east at the top, west on the bottom, north on the left, and south on the right. The four directions are distributed around a sacred center, shown here as Xiuhtecuhlti. In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtecuhtli was the god of fire, day and heat. The senior-deity of the Aztec pantheon, he was the lord of volcanoes, the personification of life after death, warmth in cold (fire), light in darkness and food during famine. At the end of a 52-year cycle it was feared that the gods would discontinue their contract with mankind. To appease them, at the end of such a cycle feasts were held in their honor, where Xiuhtecuhtli as the god of fire was the center of their attention. The Codex Fejerv?ry-Mayer is an Aztec Codex of central Mexico. It is one of the rare pre-Hispanic manuscripts that have survived the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The Codex is a typical tonalamatl, which is an almanac that deals with the tonalpohualli calendar. Its elaboration is typically pre-Columbian: it is made on deerskin parchment folded accordion-style into 23 pages.
