The Florentine Codex

The Florentine Codex is by far one of the most impressive ethnographic manuscripts in human history. The Florentine Codex is a detailed manuscript that describes the basic societal workings of the Aztec Empire in Central Mexico, compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún arrived in New Spain in 1529 and began conducting research in the 1540s on the regional indigenous religions and cultures. There was certainly a religious motive for producing this encyclopedic manuscript. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún believed that the religious conversion of the indigenous peoples would be much more effective, if the Spanish knew how indingeous people perceived deities, religion, and spirituality.

Fray Bernardino de Sahagún did not complete this impressive feat himself, he sought help from indigenous groups. Sahagún would prepare questionnaires about the religious and cultural practices. Many of their answers were recorded as sketches of their interpretation. He then sought help from Nahua students to help interpret such images using Latin, later transcribing it in Spanish himself.

This piece of colonial history is one of the most important documents in human history. It is one of the most detailed records of indigneous cultures and religions in colonial Latin America. This document reveals intentions and motives of Spaniards categorize and convert indeingeous people, yet to some extent it allowed for indigenous people to express their interpretation of the world. The Florentine Codex is a document that also tells a story of the relationships between the Spanish and the indingeous people of Latin America with hundreds of accounts and images.

WORKS CITED

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, The World of the Aztecs in the Florentine Codex, (Mandragora: 2007).

“Images from the Codex,” in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, The World of the Aztecs in the Florentine Codex (Florence: Mandragora, 2007). Additional information is derived from Miguel León-Portilla, Bernardino de Sahagún: First Anthropologist (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002).