"The
Codex Florentine"
This
edition of the Codex Florentine tries to transmit the manuscript
on its original form (Antique Spanish-NahuatI).
Libros
Mas Cultura and Editorial Aldus present to you this co-edition
in four volumes, as in the original version, luxuriously bound
in leather, as well as an introductory research written by
Dr. Miguel Leon-Portilla, all in a cedar box with wrought
iron finishing touches.
The
old manuscript is called codex, from the latin word "codex".
When
the Spaniards first set foot on Mexican land, there was no
alphabet. People who compiled history, medicine, taxes, calendars,
etc.. were called "tlacuilos" (the one who speaks
by painting). A new form of communicating these subjects by
the conquerors was to include in these their manuscripts.
There
were many colonial codexes such as the Codex Mendocine which
was a tax codex, the Badian, which was medical, or the Duran
which was historic, but no one as complete, as it encompasses
all forms of subjects, or as complex as this Codex Florentine.
At
the present time it is known with this name because it is
kept in the Medicean-Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy.
Its original name is General History of Things in New Spain
and its creator is the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590),
considered one of the chroniclers who contributed to the knowledge
of the cultures that the Spaniards found when they arrived
in New Spain.
Friar
Bernardino de Sahagun accomplishes his endeavor with trilingual
students, old disciples of him, among which are Antonio Valeriano.
Alonso Vejarano, Martin Jacobita, and Pedro de San Buenaventura.
That is why there are differences in calligraphy, inking,
and diverse strokes and tones when color was applied on the
pictograms.
About
the work and as special characteristics, we observe the arrangement
in symmetrical boxes in which appear, seen from the front
on the left side, the text in Spanish, and on the right, in
Nahuatl. Each page or folio has as cornice or explaining folio
at the left, (or verso), the corresponding book and the general
title, and on the right (or recto), the title of the part
and the folio, taking care that these texts, in capitals,
correspond to the columns, and only the folio is outside the
composition box.
*VOLUME
I:
FIRST BOOK. Deals with gods worshiped by the
natives of this land, which is New Spain.
SECOND BOOK. Deals with holidays and sacrifices
with which these natives honored their gods in times of infidelity.
THIRD BOOK. About the creation of the gods.
FORTH BOOK. About Indian judiciary astrology
or omens and fortune-telling arts.
FIFTH BOOK. Deals with foretelling these natives
made from birds, animals, and bugs in order to foretell the
future.
*VOLUME
II:
SIXTH BOOK. About prayers to their gods, rhetoric,
moral philosophy, and theology in the same context.
*VOLUME
III:
SEVENTH BOOK. Deals with the Sun, the Moon,
the stars, and the jubilee year.
EIGHT BOOK. About kings and lords, and the way
they held their elections and governed their reigns.
NINTH BOOK. About merchants, and officials for
gold, precious stones and feathers.
TENTH BOOK. About general history: it explains
vices and virtues, spiritual as well as bodily, of all manner
of persons.
*VOLUME
IV:
ELEVENTH BOOK. About properties of animals,
birds, fish, trees, herbs, flowers, metals, and stones, and
about colors.
TWELVETH BOOK. About the conquest of New Spain,
which is Mexico City.
Dr.
Miguel Leon-Portilla tells us in his introductory research
that Fray Bernardino interviewed different old wise natives,
who agreed to inform him about their customs and history by
means of paintings or codexes. As time went by, his interest
was not only attacking idolatry about what was considered
pagan among the natives, but directly and by itself by the
native culture.
Wishing
to transmit to you the spirit with which Bernardino compiled
his document, we leave in your hands this piece.
Presentation
and introductory research by Dr. Miguel Leon-Portilla.
Reproduction authorized by INAH number 401-3-6553.
More than 4,000 pages in four volumes bound in leather in
a beautiful
cedar box with wrought iron finishing touches.
Total weigh of each copy : 21.300 kg
Printed on Galgo Verjurado Tiza cotton paper
Certified printing by Public Notary.
500 copies to your disposition.
ISBN: 970-714-019-4.
We deliver anywhere in the world.
