Knowra Florentine Codex Florentine Codex The Florentine Codex is a twelve-book illustrated encyclopedia of Nahua life, knowledge, and history compiled in sixteenth-century New Spain under Bernardino de Sahagún.
Bernardino de Sahagún : A Franciscan friar who studied Nahuatl and directed the compilation of the Florentine Codex. He organized the inquiry, gathered testimony, and supervised the codex's production.
Florentine Codex Book 1 : The first book of the Florentine Codex, describing Nahua gods and religious practices. It shows how the work organized a subject into a dedicated book.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire : The campaigns and political changes by which Spain defeated the Mexica-led Aztec Empire in the early sixteenth century. The conquest created the colonial setting in which Sahagún's project took shape.
Nahua religion : The religious traditions of Nahua peoples, including deities, ceremonies, and understandings of the cosmos. The codex documents religious practices that colonial authorities sought to replace.
Nahuatl : A Uto-Aztecan language spoken by Nahua peoples, including the Mexica of central Mexico. The codex's Nahuatl text preserves Indigenous accounts alongside Spanish translations.
Florentine Codex Book 12 : The twelfth book of the Florentine Codex, recounting the Spanish conquest of Mexico from a Nahua perspective. Its conquest narrative makes the codex's historical testimony especially clear.
Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco : A school founded in 1536 at Tlatelolco to educate Indigenous boys in Christian and European learning. The college connected Sahagún with Nahua scholars and supplied a setting for his research.
Aztec society : The political, social, and cultural order of the Mexica-led empire in central Mexico before Spanish rule. Its descriptions make the codex a major source for reconstructing pre-conquest life.
Nahua : Indigenous peoples of central Mexico who speak or historically spoke Nahuatl and share related cultural traditions. Their knowledge and perspectives are the subject and a major source of the work.
Nahua informants : Nahua elders, specialists, and other contributors whose testimony informed Sahagún's work. Their accounts supplied much of the knowledge recorded in the codex.
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