Márquez MA

Language: English/Spanish
References: 4
Page: 87-93
PDF size: 1212.32 Kb.

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The Florentine Codex is a manuscript which is part of the vast and rich Medicea Laurenziana Library of Florence, Italy. It was written by friar Bernardino de Sahagun and a group of well educated Aztec indian schcolars known as the "Informants of Sahagun". Father Sahagun was born in 1499 in Leon, Spain and died in Mexico City in 1590. He studied at the University of Salamanca, and arrived to the "New Spain" in 1529 along with other 19 Franciscan friars. He also travelled and studied extensively, learning all about the Mexica culture and taught Latin at the Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco College in Mexico City. He lived the transition years that followed the conquest of the Aztec nation and the first years of the Colony. Friar Bernardino realized that world was rapidly going to vanish due to the militar, religious and cultural impact of the European invaders. Fascinated by the Mesoamerican civilization, he learned Nahuatl, the native language, and surrounded himself by a select group of well educated indian. Since 1547 they worked gathering, classifying, studying, collecting and ordering prehispanic material of all sort. As a result, Sahagun and his trilingual (Castillian, Nahuatl and Latin) native collaborators: Antonio Valeriano from Azcapotzalco, Martin Jacobita from Tlatelolco and Pedro de San Buenaventura from Cuauhtitlan, wrote a colosal accomplishment and finished it in 1585. These magnificent books form an encyclopaedia which studies all areas regarding the Aztec culture. Book number eleven is dedicated to the study of birds, and is divided in ten chapters. All kind of birds are described: Quetzales, roseate spoonbills, macaws, herons, ducks, swallows, woodpeckers, "chachalacas", hummingbirds, eagles, owls, doves, turkeys, etc. Detailed and colorful descriptions, written more than four hundred years ago of the feathered creatures and their habitat is a wonderful and fascinating heritage for ornithologists and bird lovers at the end of the XX century.

REFERENCES

1. Alvarez del Toro, M.: Las Aves de Chiapas. 2a ed. Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México, 1980.

2. Enciclopedia de México. 3a ed. Impresora y Editora Mexicana, México, D.F., 1977.

3. Peterson, R.T. and Chalif, E.L.: A Field Guide to Mexican Birds. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachussetts, 1976.

4. Sahagún, Fray Bernardino de: Códice Florentino. Facsímil del Manuscrito 218-20 de la Colección Palatina de la Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Italia. Giunte Barbera, México, D.F., 1979.