Dantes heritage: questioning the

multi-layered model of the

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Mesoamerican universe
Jesper Nielsen1 & Toke Sellner Reunert2

Ancient Mesoamericans are generally thought to have imagined the universe stacked in vertical
layers, not unlike the cosmic layers of Dantes Comedy. Dismantling this model, our authors show
it to be based upon a post-conquest European-Aztec hybrid. This penetrating critique tracks the
history of the hybrid cosmos from its first appearance through its resilient repetition until today.
Keywords: Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Colonial Mesoamerica, cosmology, European
influence, Franciscans

Introduction
A recurring methodological discussion in Mesoamerican research has centred on the extant
use of ethnohistorical and ethnographic analogies (Trigger 1981; Quilter 1996). Although
we find this approach both inevitable and productive, the present study will emphasise how
important it is to investigate and trace the development of any cultural element in time and
space with extreme care. In the present study we will suggest that a generalisation has taken
place regarding the idea of a multi-layered Mesoamerican universe, showing that this cosmic
structure has been inferred primarily from post-Columbian central Mexican sources and
not from pre-Columbian evidence such as hieroglyphic texts or iconography. Secondly, and
more importantly, we put forward the hypothesis that the notion of a multi-layered universe
is not genuinely an autochthonous Mesoamerican concept, and that it was only introduced
into the area in the sixteenth century, and ultimately derives from European visions of the
cosmos. A main objective of our research has been to examine under which circumstances
and by whom, sixteenth-century sources on Mesoamerican religion and cosmography were
composed.

Layers or regions: the topography of the otherworld

The early Colonial Kiche Maya manuscript known as the Popol Wuj describes how the
Hero Twins have to face particular ordeals in six houses in the underworld of Xibalba
(Christenson 2003: 160-74). Each house is named according to the particular ordeal it

1
Department of American Indian Languages and Cultures, Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies,
University of Copenhagen, Artillerivej 86, 2300 Copenhagen S., Denmark (Email: jnielsen@hum.ku.dk)
2
Grnnehj 35 st. tv., 2720 Vanlse, Denmark (Email: toke@reunert.dk)
Received: 14 May 2008; Revised: 18 June 2008; Accepted: 3 September 2008
ANTIQUITY 83 (2009): 399413
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 Dantes heritage: questioning the multi-layered model of the Mesoamerican universe
Figure 1. The well-known model of the
Aztec multi-layered universe based on
Codex Vaticanus A folios 1v-2r (adapted
from Nicholson 1971: Figure 7).
presents to the protagonists. For instance, the second
house is called Blade House and is filled with sharp
cutting blades. In the description of the setting, it appears
that all houses are arranged on the same level, as though
chambers in the cavernous Xibalba. The geography of
the Popol Wuj underworld in many ways resembles the
layout of the Aztec underworld according to the Codex
Vaticanus A (c . 1566-89, Glass & Robertson 1975: 186;
Miller & Taube 1993: 177-8) (Figure 1). In the Vaticanus
A, the first realm beneath the earth is called Water
Passage, while the second is named Where the Hills
Clash Together (Nicholson 1971: 406-8). In the Popol
Wuj the Hero Twins begin their journey to Xibalba
by passing through great river canyons, that is, narrow
spaces where the rocks come together, and they cross
the big rivers called Pus and Blood. The realms named
Obsidian Knife Hill and Where Someone Is Shot with
Arrows in the Vaticanus A can be compared to the Blade
House in the Kiche epic, in the sense that they are places
where blades inflict pain on humans. The Aztecs called
the eighth realm of the underworld Where Someones
Heart Is Eaten and illustrated this place by a carnivore
devouring a human heart. The obvious Kiche parallel is
the House of Jaguars.
But while the Kiche highland Maya of the mid-
sixteenth century presents an underworld horizontally
divided into a number of departments or regions,
the contemporaneous Aztec Vaticanus A places these
departments on top of each other, forming a vertically
arranged underworld of multiple layers. Is this simply an
example of two alternative Mesoamerican concepts? Or
can the difference best be explained by other historical
developments and cultural mechanisms? As indicated,
it cannot be verified that the vertical multi-layered
structure is an indigenous pre-Columbian model of the
cosmos. Thus, all known sources that make references
to such a multi-layered cosmological structure are of
post-Columbian origin. We therefore suggest that the
concept of a multi-layered universe was introduced by the
Spanish intruders, and more specifically the Franciscans
and their Dantean world-view with its nine layers in
both heaven and underworld. Yet today, the existence
of a pre-Columbian multi-layered cosmos is taken for
granted.
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 Jesper Nielsen and Toke Sellner Reunert

Common knowledge and where it came from

The majority of textbooks available describe how the ancient Maya and Aztecs divided
the heavens and the underworld into a number of layers (e.g. Evans 2004), most often

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9 layers in the underworld and 13 layers in the heavens. Miller and Taube (1993: 177-8)
refer to Codex Vaticanus A as the source where the 9-13 scheme receives its most explicit and
ample representation. They add, however, that: The Maya certainly perceived layers of both
Underworld and upper world but the notion of nine levels of the Underworld is not specific or
universal for the Maya, nor is it for either the Mixtecs or the Zapotecs. This note of caution
is important, as it turns out that it is almost exclusively Codex Vaticanus A that is referred
to, if any source is mentioned at all, in the broad syntheses of Mesoamerican multi-layered
cosmography.
Seler was the first to present a lengthy discussion of central Mexican cosmography,
including the notion of stratified layers in the heavens and in the underworld. However,
he also noted that: In the same way as the earth, this flat, two-dimensional shield [of the
underworld] was cut up into nine regions corresponding to the four cardinal directions. Thus,
the underworld was divided into nine regions (Seler [1923] 1996: 9), and emphasised that
there are a variety of ways to perceive the layout of the underworld (Seler [1923] 1996:
3-23). Despite Selers nuanced analysis, the Vaticanus A scheme in time has become the
standard for understanding ancient central Mexican cosmography. In 1961, Krickebergs
synthesis of the cosmology of the Postclassic cultures further established what would become
the unquestioned fact that the Aztecs believed in a cosmic structure arranged vertically in
layers of 9 and 13 (Krickeberg et al. [1961] 1968: 39-40; see also Lopez Austin 1997: 16-17,
106-8).
From the Maya area we have no early commentators who depict or describe the universe
in a way similar to that of the Codex Vaticanus A. For example, Landa in his Relacion
(c . 1566) does not mention layers (Tozzer 1941). It would seem that the idea of a 9-13
layer model among the Classic Maya was first advanced by J. Eric S. Thompson. In 1934
he suggested that: it is possible that the various groups of Maya direction gods [. . .] were
considered to be on different celestial or terrestrial planes (Thompson 1934: 216, emphasis
added). Thus, directional gods were transferred to vertical layers on a hypothetical basis.
Twenty years later he was more certain: They appear to have believed that the sky was divided
into thirteen compartments, in which of each certain gods resided. These may have been thought
to be arranged as that number of horizontal layers one above the other (Thompson 1954:
225-6, emphasis added). Finally, in Maya History and Religion (1970) Thompson left no
room for doubt: there are thirteen layers of the skies [. . .] just as there are nine layers of the
underworld (1970: 280, emphasis added). Eventually, the idea of a multi-layered cosmos
became so deeply embedded in Mesoamerican research that it was automatically accepted as
a genuine pre-Columbian concept (e.g. Villa Rojas in Leon-Portilla 1988: 135). The cosmic
model soon influenced interpretations of Mesoamerican architecture. Thus, Klein (1975),
drawing on Krickebergs research, and Van Zantwijk (1981) published interpretations of
temple pyramids based on the references to layered cosmologies documented in Colonial
sources. The assumed nine layers of the underworld are also alleged to be represented in
the architecture of certain Maya sites (Carlson 1981: 154). We must stress that we do not

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 Dantes heritage: questioning the multi-layered model of the Mesoamerican universe

per se reject the association between the underworld, the number nine and architecture.
Thus, the so-called Twin Pyramid groups of Tikal, which are thought to be architectural
cosmograms, include nine-doorwayed buildings on their south side (Ashmore 1991), and
are perhaps emulating the series of horizontally arranged houses of the underworld known
from the Popol Wuj.

Mesoamerican visions of the universe

In the Mesoamerican data, it readily becomes apparent that a four-part image of the
universe is by far the dominant scheme. This horizontal structure, based on a central
middle point and the four world directions, can be traced further back into pre-Columbian
Mesoamerica, from the Postclassic and as far back as to the Preclassic (Nicholson 1971:
403-6; Freidel et al. 1993: 71-3, 128-31; Miller & Taube 1993: 77-8, 186-7). A well-known
representation of this horizontally divided cosmos is found on the first page of the Mixtec
Codex Fejervary Mayer (Figure 2), where the god of fire is shown standing at the centre of the
earth, while two gods are associated with each cardinal direction, thus amounting to nine
gods (see also the Maya Codex Madrid, pp. 75-6). The gods and trees of the four directions
are framed by a cross pattee with the arms of the cross oriented toward the four cardinal
directions, but counting the intercardinal loops and the centre the number nine is rendered
once more (Boone 2007: 114-7). Thus, we have nine horizontal divisions of the cosmos.
In contrast, pre-Columbian iconography and inscriptions do not make any unequivocal
references to a layered universe. Deities, supernatural beings and places, in particular among
the Classic Maya, often appear with numerals 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 13 prefixed, but there is
currently no evidence that any of these numerals, and more specifically 7, 9 and 13, can
be associated with vertical layers rather than horizontal regions of the cosmos. As already
mentioned, the depiction of the Mesoamerican cosmos most commonly referred to is the
illustration of the layered universe in the Vaticanus A (folios 1v-2r). However, if we compare
the Vaticanus A representation with the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahaguns detailed
description of the Aztec underworld we find some notable discrepancies. Thus, the latter
has no reference to layers, and the text rather provides us with the impression of moving
through a continuous horizontal landscape. If we consult the appendix of Book 3 of the
Florentine Codex (or Historia General), we read that: all who died went to [one of ] three
places when they died. The first place was there in the place of the dead [Mictlan]. A prayer
accompanied the deceased and the goods placed in the grave:

Here is wherewith thou wilt pass where the mountains come together. And here is
wherewith thou wilt pass by the road which the serpent watcheth. And here is wherewith
thou wilt pass by the blue lizard, the xochitonal. And here is wherewith thou wilt travel
the eight deserts. And here is wherewith thou wilt cross the eight hills. Here is wherewith
thou wilt pass the place of the obsidian-bladed winds [. . .]. And also they caused him
to take with him a little dog, a yellow one [. . .]. It was said that it would take [the
dead one] across the place of the nine rivers in the place of the dead. And [. . .] there
was arrival with Mictlan tecutli [. . .]. And there in the nine places of the dead, in that
place there was complete disappearance. (Anderson & Dibble 1978: 41-4)

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Figure 2. The cosmogram of Codex Fejervary-Mayer, p. 1 (
c National Museums Liverpool, World Museum Liverpool).

In this description there is no reference to layers or to a downward movement from one

place to another. The journey of the dead to their final destination, described as the ninth
place, could equally well or perhaps better be interpreted as a journey through regions
situated on the same level, and terminating at a central location. Those who did not arrive
in Mictlan came to Tlalocan or to the home of the sun, in heaven (Anderson & Dibble
1978: 47-9). Again we find no indication of a multitude of layers, but a rather basic contrast
between down and up.
Another of Sahaguns texts, the Primeros Memoriales contains a reference to
chicunavatenco, the ninth underworld, but this location is not explicitly described as
being situated below other underworlds (Sahagun 1997: 177-8; see also Anderson 1988:
156-9). A much later source, Ruiz de Alarcons Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions (1629),
also provides important information. Summarising some of Ruiz de Alarcons observations,
Andrews and Hassig conclude that: The native view of the supernatural world persisted in

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the concepts of a celestial realm and an underworld. The celestial realm Topan (Above-us),
also called ChiucnauhTopan (Nine-Topan) and Chiucnauhtlanepaniuhcan (Nine-layering-
place), has nine levels, although these are not discussed separately, nor are internal distinctions
drawn (Andrews & Hassig 1984: 21). The key term is Chiucnauhtlanepaniuhcan, and Ruiz
de Alarcon originally translated this as a las nueve juntas o emparejamientos (1984: 224).
Andrews and Hassig consider this a misinterpretation, hence their translation Nine-layering-
place. However, no part of the word can be translated as layering or layer. Nepaniuh is
a form of the verb nepanoa, meaning juntarse una cosa con otra (Karttunen 1992: 169).
Thus, the term simply designates a place where nine entities are united or fitted together
(Una Canger, pers. comm. 2007), and Ruiz de Alarcons original translation is not erroneous.
On the contrary, Andrews and Hassigs interpretation of the term may be coloured by
the expectations generated by common knowledge, and Chiucnauhtlanepaniuhcan could
equally well refer to a horizontal division of the heavens.
As mentioned, none of the early Colonial sources on the Maya make reference to layers,
whereas the importance of the four cardinal directions and the centre is referred to in several
instances (Tozzer 1941: 135-9; Christenson 2003: 65). Only in much later Yukatek Maya
sources do we find references to a layered structure of the cosmos. In the Book of Chilam
Balam of Chumayel we encounter the 9-God and the 13-God, and they appear in the
context of the thirteen tas or layers of the heavens. The same source mentions the the
seventh stratum of the earth and the four layers of stars (Roys 1933: 31-2, 99-101). It
would thus seem that the link between the 9 and 13 gods and cosmic layers derive from the
Chumayel manuscript, and that modern scholars have assumed that a similar belief existed
in pre-Columbian times. However, it is important to stress that by the time the Chilam
Balam of Chumayel was written in the late eighteenth century, Yukatek Maya culture had
long been influenced by Euro-Christian concepts and genres, as is evident throughout large
parts of the book (Mignolo 1995: 204-7; Graham in press). An influence from European
cosmology is also apparent in the Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua, which includes a European
geocentric, spherical model of the universe (Bricker & Miram 2002: 92). According to
Bricker and Miram the Maya terms for layers: tas and yal refer not only to the layers of the
sky in these Books of Chilam Balam but also to the celestial spheres of the European universe in
the Kaua (Bricker & Miram 2002: 36).
Altar 3 from the Late Classic Maya site of Altar de los Reyes (Campeche, Mexico) bears a
hieroglyphic text referring to the divine lands, the 13 lands in combination with 13 Emblem
Glyphs of Maya polities, strongly suggesting that the Maya of this region acknowledged 13
subdivisions or regions of the earth (Grube 2003). It is possible that the geography of the
underworld mirrored a similar horizontal structure coupled with the number 13. Knabs
account of the geography of the underworld from San Miguel Tzinacapan (a Nahua-speaking
community in Puebla, Mexico) supports this hypothesis (Knab 1991, 1993). According
to the shamans of the village, the underworld (called Talocan) in many ways mirrors the
earthly level and its organisation. The underworld is organised according to the four cardinal
directions, and one of Knabs informants relates that inside the underworld there are fourteen
of everything [. . .]. Thirteen outside the center for us, and one of everything inside for the Lords
(Knab 1993: 63). In Sahaguns Primeros Memoriales the numbers associated with geography
of the underworld were 8 and 9, while among the San Miguel Tzinacapan shamans it is the

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number 14 that has gained importance in the division of the underworldly terrain, and we
hear of 14 rivers, lakes, hills, fields, roads, county seats etc. in the underworld (Knab 1991:
47). References to layers, however, are absent. The above-mentioned groups of 9 and 13
deities may thus originally have resided over horizontally arranged regions rather than layers.

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To summarise: the relatively few sources describing a multi-layered universe are all of
post-Columbian origin, and are almost certainly influenced by Euro-Christian concepts
regarding the structure of the cosmos. Far more common, in both pre- and post-Columbian
sources, is an emphasis on the cardinal directions, the centre and a basic three-tiered cosmos.
This is surprising if the multi-layered cosmos was indeed part of a common and widespread
pre-Columbian world-view, which would have further facilitated a merging with the Euro-
Christian cosmology.

Dantes universe
At the time of the conquest, the European view of the universe was predominantely that
of the Franciscan and Dominican friars and equated to a Dantean cosmology. Although
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) did not belong to either the Franciscan or the Dominican order
himself, he was strongly influenced by both. During his youth Dante attended philosophical
and theological schools and became familiar with the central Franciscan and Dominican
teachings (Hawkins 2007). Dante wrote his masterpiece, the so-called Divine Comedy, from
1308-1321, i.e. some 200 years before the Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica. Nevertheless,
his description of the geography of Heaven and Hell was widespread in late fifteenth and
early sixteenth-century Europe, where the Franciscans were active in both translating and
commenting on the Comedy (Iriarte 1984: 131). During this period the Comedy had
tremendous influence on Spanish theological poetry (Friederich 1949: 45-7), and reached
the status of a quasi-biblical text, based on its own claim to have been inspired by a vision.
In the Comedy, Dante travels through the three realms of the dead (Inferno, Purgatory
and Heaven). The Inferno consists of nine stacked circles, resembling an inverted pyramid.
In each of the nine circles, the dead suffer according to a gradual increase in wickedness,
culminating at the centre of the earth, where Satan resides. While this underworld is placed
below the holy city of Jerusalem, Purgatory is found on the exact opposite side of the world.
The earthly Purgatory consists of a mountain with seven terraces, each corresponding to
one of the deadly sins, but including the Antepurgatory and the Terrestrial Paradise it has
nine layers, thus corresponding to the nine circles of Hell, and the nine spheres of Paradise.
After climbing the seven terraces, Dante reaches the Garden of Eden, and can now approach
the heavenly spheres and the residence of God (Figure 3). Dantes heaven represents the
medieval equivalent of Aristotles nine heavenly spheres, and adopting this model, Dante
formulated a theological-astronomical geography of the cosmos, consisting of nine layers of
the underworld, seven or nine layers on earth, and nine layers of the heavens.
We know that Dantes work did reach Mexico in the early Colonial period. The inventories
of the library of the school in Tlatelolco of 1572, 1574 and 1582 do not mention the Comedy
(Mathes 1982) but a detailed invoice from a shipment of books from Sevilla to San Juan de
Ulua, Veracruz, in 1600 refers to two copies of Dante in Italian (Green & Leonard 1941:
12). Furthermore, a sixteenth-century copy of the Comedy is held in the National Library

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 Dantes heritage: questioning the multi-layered model of the Mesoamerican universe

Figure 3. Domenico di Michelinos fresco The Comedy Illuminating Florence (1465) in the cathedral of Santa Maria del
Fiore in Florence, Italy. Note the terraces of Purgatory and Garden of Eden in the background, as well as the divisions of the
heavens (c Photo SCALA, Florence).

in Mexico City and may well originally have belonged to one of the convent libraries (Pablo
Escalante Gonzalbo, pers. comm. 2008).
What is crucial to our argument, however, is not whether the Franciscan friars in Mexico
had one or several copies of Dantes Comedy in their possession, but that they were familiar
with the Dantean multi-layered cosmology, and that this world-view was a natural point of
reference in the interpretation of the local accounts of the geography of the cosmos.
In 1579 the book Rhetorica Christiana was printed in Perugia, Italy, written by the
Mexican-born Franciscan Diego de Valades (1533-82?), son of a Spanish conquistador and
possibly a native Tlaxcalan woman (Edgerton 2001: 114). While Valadess main subject was
to explain in detail the art of literary rhetoric how language can most effectively serve the
teaching of Christian doctrine he [. . .] believed that the same techniques and intention were
equally applicable to the visual arts (Edgerton 2001: 116). One of the illustrations in the
Rhetorica shows Valades mentor Friar Pedro de Gante (c . 1480-1572) preaching to the
Indians by means of pictures. A text accompanying the same illustration states: Because the
Indians lack letters, it was necessary to teach them by means of some illustrations (cited after
Edgerton 2001: 116). According to Ricard, another friar, one Luis Caldera who did not

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 Jesper Nielsen and Toke Sellner Reunert

know the language of the Indians he was evangelising, was using identical visual means of
persuasion: Carrying large pictures representing the sacraments, the catechism, heaven, hell, and
purgatory, he went from village to village (Ricard 1966: 104).
Some of the pictures used for teaching the catechism were also represented in the Valades

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Rhetorica. Thus, three full-page sized images are showing heaven, earth and hell as divided
into layers, much like the Dantean layout of cosmos. One of these illustrations shows God
(with Jesus reclining in his lap) sitting on his throne inside a cloud at the uppermost layer,
while the devil being worshipped by sinners is placed at the bottom of the page (Figure 4).
The layout of this illustration and the utilisation of it by the friars sum up one of the
crucial points of this article. It seems quite probable that the multi-layered world-view was
taught and referred to in the religious schools of New Spain, and thus reached the native
literati that were working for the friars or independently.

Painting the universe but whose universe?

We can now approach the question of how and why the vertical structure was adopted in
New Spain. To provide an answer, we need to examine the early Colonial context in which
documents such as the Codex Vaticanus A were produced. First, it is important to recognise
the biases of the Europeans who recorded their impressions of the New World. The friars
primarily worked from a preconceived model of the pagan alternative to Christianity, based
on Greco-Roman religion. Todorov points to a series of equivalences between the Aztec and
Roman gods in Sahaguns description of the Aztec deities, and refers to one example where
the goddess Chicomecoatl is called another Ceres (Todorov 1984: 231-3; see also Keen
1971). However, images like the cosmogram of the Vaticanus A should not be seen as a
result of Franciscan attempts to conceptualise the Mesoamerican cosmography according to
a Euro-Pagan tradition. Rather, we suggest that such images are a result of the appropriation
of Euro-Christian ideas by well-educated Nahuas. Many of the documents produced in the
early Colonial period were not only the work of the Franciscans themselves. Indian scribes
and informants that had been taught by the friars at schools such as the Colegio de Santa
Cruz in Tlatelolco, central Mexico, contributed considerably to the manuscripts, and not
least to the production of images (e.g. Ricard 1966; Kobayashi 1985; Bremer 2003). The
Tlatelolco-school opened in 1536, and here the sons of the Indian nobility, the colegiales,
were taught grammar, geometry, astronomy and elemental theology. Some colegiales were
also trained in the arts such as: the figural styles and iconographic system of late Gothic and
Renaissance Europe (Boone 2003: 145). Bremer describes the students of the Franciscan
schools as hybrids with a bicultural education, being neither natives nor Europeans (2003:
20), and he points out how Sahaguns Historia General was the work not only of Sahagun
himself, but also of the hybrid colegiales, Indians by birth and quasi-Europeans by education
and training. Escalante Gonzalbo provides abundant examples of how native artists copied
images or altered images from the Bible or from books on natural history, and also noted the
strong European influence in the illustrations of the Historia General (Escalante Gonzalbo
2003; see also Peterson 1988). Clearly, the Franciscan schools provided an intellectual
environment in which an almost inevitable blending of old and new was the norm. It was in

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Figure 4. Diego de Valades image of heaven, earth and hell, divided into layers (1579). (
c Benson Latin American
Collection, University of Texas, Austin).

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Figure 5. The first two scenes of the sacred narrative of the Selden Roll (MS. Arch. Selden A. 72(3), 
c Bodleian Library,
Oxford University).

this bi-cultural setting that many of our primary sources on the nature of the Mesoamerican
cosmic structure were formed, in text and image.
The cosmological model of the Vaticanus A fits into the pattern of production of
syncretic religious images in the early Colonial period that we have outlined above.
The original cosmogram runs over two pages (1v-2r) and shows the Aztec creator god
Tonacatecuhtli seated in the thirteenth and uppermost layer, Omeyocan (Figure 1). Below,
in layer 2, we find the moon, just above the earth, Tlalticpac, which constitutes the first
layer of the heavens as well as of the underworld. The ninth and final realm of the under-
world is Mictlan, the ultimate station of the dead. Another representation of the heavenly
layers can be found in the Selden Roll, a sixteenth-century Mixtec manuscript (Burland
1955) (Figure 5). The first part of the codex shows nine layers, with the sun and
moon occupying the first, lower level. A path, marked by foot prints, penetrates the
sequence of layers marked with stars. In the ninth and uppermost layer the culture
hero Lord 9 Wind is seated between a man and a woman both named 1 Deer. The
couple is equivalent to the Aztec ancestral couple, the gods of creation and procreation
Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl. The primordial pair was said to reside in Omeyocan, a
mythical place of duality, birth and descent (Miller & Taube 1993: 40-41, 127-8, 154).
Interestingly, in pre-Columbian times primordial couples found in most of Mesoamerica,

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 Dantes heritage: questioning the multi-layered model of the Mesoamerican universe

were associated with caves and the earth rather than the heavens (Nielsen & Brady 2006). In
contrast to the Vaticanus A scene we do not find a corresponding image of the underworld in
the Selden Roll. Instead, a row of footprints enters the open maw of the earth monster and
reaches Chicomoztoc (Seven Caves). Thus, the Selden Roll does not present the underworld
as a mirror image of the layers of the sky, but couples the latter with an Aztec mythic place
name associated with the number seven. The seven caves are situated within a mountain
and are arranged at the same level, much like the houses or caves of the Popol Wuj. In fact,
the multi-layered heaven of the Selden Roll represent an anomaly in a composition and
arrangement that in many other respects reflect pre-Columbian concepts and conventions.
The placement of the creator couple
in the upper layer also seems to be
heavily inspired by Euro-Christian and
Dantean imagery. The Aztec ancestral
couple constitutes a near perfect parallel
to Adam and Eve as they are standing
in the Garden of Eden at the summit
of Mount Purgatory in the famous fresco
The Comedy Illuminating Florence by di
Michelino (1417-1491) (Figure 4). Dating
to 1465 the fresco shows Dante holding the
Divine Comedy. Behind Dante the terraces
of Purgatory with Adam and Eve at the top
and the heavenly layers can be discerned.
Another depiction of the Euro-Christian
Figure 6. Illumination from the Book of the Heaven and the cosmos comes from Oresmes Book of the
World (1377) by Nicole Oresme ( c Bibliotheque Nationale Heaven and the World from 1377, which
de France, Paris).
shows god seated in the uppermost of nine
layers of stars, with the moon occupying the lowest level (Figure 6). Both the Vaticanus A and
the Selden Roll thus evidently merge pre-Columbian elements and deities with European and
Christian concepts, and parallels seem to have been sought: native creator gods and ancestral
couples replace Adam and Eve or the Almighty; Omeyocan, the mystical abode of the first
two humans is likened to Paradise, and the original division of heaven and underworld in a
number of horizontal regions are transformed into a vertical structure akin to the illustrations
the native artists and colegiales would have seen during teachings and sermons and copied
from volumes in the Franciscan libraries. None of the two cosmological layouts discussed
here are therefore exact copies, but rather reinterpretations, of the Dantean cosmology. The
illustrations of the Vaticanus A and the Selden Roll are neither native nor European to use
Bremers phrase (2003: 20); they both reflect a Colonial period syncretism of a native central
Mexican concept of the universe with the Euro-Christian Dantean cosmology.

Conclusions
Reviewing the evidence bearing on the Mesoamerican structure of the cosmos, we have
argued that the long-assumed multi-layered model cannot be maintained. Rather, our

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examination has revealed that a basic three-tiered model combined with a strong emphasis
on the horizontal divisions of each layer is more likely to have been the dominant scheme
before the Spanish invasion and the introduction of Euro-Christian ideas relating to the
cosmos. We have also shown how the two crucial images from the Codex Vaticanus A and

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the Selden Roll can be explained as the product of culturally hybrid native artists.
We do not reject the possibility of a vertically structured universe (beyond the three
basic layers) in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. What we argue is that all evidence pointing
to a belief in a multi-layered universe is post-Columbian and produced in a context where
Euro-Christian ideas were deliberately imported, taught and adopted. The multi-layered
Mesoamerican universe is thus almost certainly a hybrid of original pre-Columbian and
imported Euro-Christian visions of the cosmos. Our conclusions exemplify how at times
common knowledge and generalised terms and concepts need to be reviewed. Many
arguments, scientific narratives and truths clearly and unsurprisingly consist of several
layers of preconceived assumptions and generalisations.

Acknowledgements
We would like to express our thanks to a number of colleagues who have been helpful during the process
of researching and writing this article. This includes Una Canger, Pablo Escalante Gonzalbo, Mettelise Fritz
Hansen, Elizabeth Graham, Christophe Helmke, Stephen Houston, Bodil Liljefors Persson, Jrgen Nybo
Rasmussen, Karl Taube and two anonymous referees. Any errors and misinterpretations, however, remain our sole
responsibility.

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