Created by a collaborative project between Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan friar, and the indigenous Nahua, the name of the Aztec people, the Codextells of Nahua history, religious beliefs, and culture in their own l… The text describes it as a "forest, garden, orchard of the Mexican language. Ten years before the Spaniards first came here, a frightening omen appeared in the sky. When the day broke, the sun effaced it. 1. Previously, the images were known mainly through the black-and-white drawings found in various earlier publications, which were separated from the alphabetic text. After a translation mistake, it was given the name Historia general de las Cosas de Nueva España. This strongly suggests that when the manuscripts were sent to Spain, they were as yet unfinished. He attended to the diverse ways that diverse meanings are transmitted through Nahuatl linguistics. Literature in Mesoamerican languages began long before European contact, written in the pre-Columbian writing systems. [12], The English translation of the complete Nahuatl text of all twelve volumes of the Florentine Codex was a decades-long work of Arthur J.O. This page was last edited on 8 January 2021, at 05:50. Sahagún systematically gathered knowledge from a range of diverse persons (now known as informants in anthropology), who were recognized as having expert knowledge of Aztec culture. "[25], The images were inserted in places in the text left open for them, and in some cases the blank space has not been filled. The Florentine Codex is one of the most remarkable social science research projects ever conducted. Deals with gods worshipped by the natives of this land, which is New Spain. It documents the culture, religious cosmology (worldview) and ritual practices, society, economics, and natural history of the Aztec people. [5], In 1575 the Council of the Indies banned all scriptures in the indigenous languages and forced Sahagún to hand over all of his documents about the Aztec culture and the results of his research. For modern readers, this combination of ways of presenting materials is sometimes contradictory and confusing. Did the Aztecs really know in advance of their impending doom at the hands of the Spanish? Written between 1540 and 1585, the Florentine Codex (so named because the manuscript has been part of the Laurentian Library’s collections since at least 1791) is the most authoritative statement we have of the Aztecs’ lifeways and traditions—a rich and intimate yet panoramic view of a doomed people. Peterson, "The Florentine Codex Imagery," p. 273. He did so in the native language of Nahuatl, while comparing the answers from different sources of information. Color was also used as a vehicle to impart knowledge that worked in tandem with the image itself. He adapted the project to the ways in which Aztec culture recorded and transmitted knowledge. The Merchants. The Omens that were seen before the arrival of the Spanish and Conquest from florentine codex book 12. Sahagún’s preparation for the creation of the Florentine Codex began shortly after his arrival in 1529 to New Spain, an area that included modern-day Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Philippines, Florida, and most of the southwestern United States. It was only a straw hut, the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli in the place known as Tzumulco. The final version of the Florentine Codex was completed in 1569. About long-distance elite merchants. Using excerpts primarily drawn from Bernal Diaz's 1632 account of the Spanish victory and from testimonies--many recently uncovered--of indigenous Nahua survivors gathered by Bernardino de Sahagun, "Victors and Vanquished" clearly demonstrates how personal interests, class and ethnic biases, and political considerations can influence interpretation of events. Start by marking “Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. | Mar 15, 2012 This work follows the organizational logic found in medieval encyclopedias, in particular the 19-volume De proprietatibus rerum of Sahagún's fellow Franciscan Friar Bartholomew the Englishman. Humanity (society, politics, economics, including anatomy and disease). Death rate at the top several different artists ' treatments of lines the goal of evangelizing the peoples! As an integral element of the Mexican language ( like a crane the! Up ; the wind had nothing to do with it ] a number of the itself... 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