Códice de la grana cochinilla o relación de los lugares ...

This work presents an unpublished source that was preserved among the papers of the Asturian nobility, known as the "Relación de los lugares y pueblos donde se saca la grana de la ciudad de Cholula y sus subjetos echa por Alonso de Nava juez de comisión para el beneficio, de ella, por el ilustrísimo señor Conde de Monterrey" (Relation of the places and villages where the grana is removed from the city of Cholula and its subjects cast by Alonso de Nava commission judge for the benefit, from her, by the illustrious Mr. Conde de Monterrey). Briefly, it has been called as the list of places. The analysis itself led to determine that in reality it was two documents together, since, in addition to the "Relación", there are some paintings, including those that were probably and today are lost that can be classified within the so-called colonial Mesoamerican codices. This second document is the one that has been proposed as the Codex of the Grana, since it describes the mode of production of this dye of Mesoamerican origin and that had great importance in the Modern Age. Also, this codex is related to other paintings already known as those of Gonzalo Gómez de Cervantes and with a lost material by Diego Muñoz Camargo. Returning to the "Relación de los lugares" the list of places, this text contains a quantitative and qualitative description of the number of nopal cactus in which the cochineal was bred in four "towns" of the valley of Puebla - Tlaxcala: Cholula, Huexotzinco, Calpan and Tetzmelucan. In his travelling amongst those, Alonso de Nava commission judge for this work, offers various information about them and his stays in 1600. The study that accompanies the transcription of the text of the relationship and the reproduction of the paintings focuses on the circumstances that surrounded the creation of that document. For this, three fundamental axes are taken into account: the production of the cochinilla grana, the semblance of Alonso de Nava and the interrelation of documents and characters that lead to talk about the Grana Group. All this is complemented by various maps and tables that serve to organize and illustrate the information.