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Florentine Codex
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Aztec farmers (left) planting and (right) cultivating corn with the assistance of a wooden digging tool; illustrations from the Florentine Codex, a version, in Nahuatl, of the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana by Bernardino de Sahagun, 16th c
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Florentine Codex

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Aztec farmers (left) planting and (right) cultivating corn with the assistance of a wooden digging tool; illustrations from the Florentine Codex, a version, in Nahuatl, of the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana by Bernardino de Sahagun, 16th c
Aztec farmers (left) planting and (right) cultivating corn with the assistance of a wooden digging tool; illustrations from the Florentine Codex, a version, in Nahuatl, of the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana by Bernardino de Sahagun, 16th c

The Florentine Codex is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Aztec culture, compiled by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Arriving in Mexico in 1529, Sahagún learned the Nahuatl language and dedicated his life to documenting the Aztec way of life. His monumental work, originally titled Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (General History of the Things of New Spain), covers nearly all facets of Aztec civilization, including religion, ethnobotany, folk medicine, and economics.1

The Florentine Codex is particularly valuable because it was dictated in Nahuatl by Aztec noblemen and priests and is presented in both Nahuatl and Spanish. This multi-faceted approach provides a rich and detailed understanding of Aztec culture as it existed at the time of the Spanish conquest. The codex is considered one of the most complete versions of Sahagún's work and is a crucial resource for understanding pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations.12

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3 Britannica Sources
  1. pre-Columbian civilizations - The codices
  2. pre-Columbian civilizations - Postconquest ethnographic accounts written in Spanish and Nahuatl
  3. codex

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