Book
General history of the things of New Spain: Florentine codex: book 4 -- the soothsayers and book 5 -- the omens
The School of American Research and the University of Utah • (14) (5/6) • Published In 1957 • Pages: xviii, 196 , 20 plates
By: Sahagún, Bernadino de, -1590, Anderson, Arthur J. O, Dibble, Charles E..
Abstract
The Franciscan missionary Sahagún presaged modern ethnography when, beginning the 1540s, he initiated a project to better comprehend pre-Conquest Aztec ideology and culture, interviewing elderly elites and having the data transcribed and illustrated by multilingual native scholars over a period of some thirty years. This is English language translation combines two books of the original side-by-side Spanish and Nahuatl text. Book 4 deals with the predicted fortunes of individuals born under each day sign of the calendar. A fairly large amount of information on religious beliefs and social practices was incorporated into the predictions, which also provide an example of Aztec literary art. The appendix to Book 4 is a discourse by Sahagún (written in Spanish only) on Aztec calendrics and associated ceremonials. Book 5 is a collection of omens and superstitious beliefs, including some information on childbirth; most superstitions listed in the appendix likely persisted to the time they were recorded.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2017
- Region
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub Region
- Central Mexico
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Missionary
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Robert Lee ; 1958
- Field Date
- 1540-1579
- Coverage Date
- 1500-1579
- Coverage Place
- central highland Mexico
- Notes
- Fray Bernadino de Sahagún ; translated from the Aztec, with notes and illustrations, by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble
- Uniform title: Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España. English & Aztec
- LCCN
- 51002409
- LCSH
- Indians of Mexico--Antiquities/Aztecs/Natural history--Mexico/Mexico--History--Conquest, 1519-1540/Mexico--Antiquities