Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590)

Full-size colour reproduction of the entire original document, Florentine Codex. The so-called Florentine Codex is a three-volume manuscript copy of the Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España of Bernardino de Sahagún made in Mexico City and completed in 1577. The text in Spanish and Nahuatl, compiled over the course of decades, treats the peoples and cultures of central Mexico in encyclopedic scope. Its 1,845 illustrations elucidate that text through carefully rendered depictions of indigenous dress and customs.… (más)

> LE TONALAMATL, ou Calendrier divinatoire des Anciens Mexicains, de B. de Sahagun. — Le Tonalamatl nous est parvenu grâce au travail incessant d’un moine franciscain du XVIe siècle : Fray Bernardino de Sahagun. Cet ouvrage décrit les vingt signes du Calendrier aztèque avec leurs tendances, le destin qu’ils appelaient, les bons et les mauvais jours, et les dieux tutélaires sous lesquels ils étaient placés. On y découvre des renseignements précieux sur les rites pratiqués par les anciens Mexicains, les usages propres à certaines corporations, et surtout la manière de vivre et de penser de ce peuple. Editions Le Mail, 1989 - 200 p.
—3e millénaire, (18), Hiver 1990… (más)

Originally contained in Bernardino de Sahagún's Psalmodia Christiana - a collection of religious texts written entirely in Aztec, and published in 1583, it was one of the first books printed in the western hemisphere - the tale of "Spirit Child" is an Aztec version of the Christian Nativity story. Translator John Bierhorst stumbled across it in manuscript form, while working on an Aztec dictionary, and gives the manuscript pages on which it can be found, in the brief afterword. Translated into English and presented as a picture-book, the story makes its modern debut here, illustrated by the marvelous Barbara Cooney.

Familiar and unfamiliar by turn, Spirit Child: A Story of the Nativity is a fascinating book to peruse, both for its sometimes original take on the story of Jesus' birth, and for its colorful artwork by Cooney, who apparently traveled to Mexico to do research for her illustrations. I thought some of the vocabulary used, and the means of describing various elements of the story - Joseph is described as being still "a boy," because he does not engage in sexual relations with Mary, for instance - reveal the struggle Sahagún and his assistants must have had, in translating such a culturally alien story for an Aztec audience. Recommended to anyone looking for a different kind of Nativity story, as well as to anyone interested in Aztec culture and language.… (más)