#florentine codex

Bernardino de Sahagún, Aztec astronomy from the Florentine Codex of Sahagún Left column: Tianquiztli, or market place (the Pleiades), Citlaltlachtli, or ballcourt (Gemini?), Citalpol (Venus), Citlalpopoca, or smoking star (comet), Citlaltlamina (shooting star), Meztli (moon), solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, Mamalhuaztli (Orion's Belt) The Florentine Codex is a 16th-century ethnographic research study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Sahagún originally titled it La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España (in English: The General History of the Things of New Spain).

After seven years, with contributions from specialists from around the world, the Digital Florentine Codex is now available. This new tool unlocks a wealth of Mexica history and culture with new translations and features.

Start exploring:

Stunning Codex Documenting Aztec Culture Now Fully Digitized The 16th-century “Florentine Codex” offers a Mexican Indigenous perspective that is often missing from historical accounts of the period.

Composite image collecting the illustrations of papalotl (butterflies) in Book 11 of the Florentine Codex ("Earthly Things," the volume dedicated primarily to Aztec natural history). All illustrations were done by Indigenous Nahua artists; the 12-volume encyclopedia was compiled by Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and completed c. 1577.

''The Digital Florentine Codex gives access to a singular manuscript created by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and a group of Nahua elders, authors, and artists. Written in parallel columns of Nahuatl and Spanish texts and hand painted with nearly 2,500 images, the encyclopedic codex is widely regarded as the most reliable source of information about Mexica culture, the Aztec Empire, and the conquest of Mexico. Upon completion in 1577 at the Imperial Colegio de la Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco (today Mexico City), the manuscript was sent to Europe where it entered the Medici family’s library in Florence—thus, the Florentine Codex.''

''Libro undécimo, de las propriedades de los animales, aves, peces, árboles, yerbas, flores, metales y piedras, y de las colores

Capítulo I, de los animales Párrafo primero, de las bestias fieras

El tigre anda y vive en las sierras y entre las peñas y riscos, y también en el agua. Es noble, y dicen es príncipe y señor de los otros animales. Y es avisado y recatado, y regálase como el gato, y no consiente trabajo ninguno. Y tiene asco de ver cosas sucias y hediondas, y tiénese en mucho. Es baxo y corpulento, y tiene la cola larga, y las manos son gruesas y anchas, y tiene el pescuezo grueso. (...)''