Bernardino De Sahagun

About the Author

Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590), a Franciscan friar and pioneering ethnographer, dedicated his life to documenting the culture, history, and natural world of the Aztec people following the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Born in Sahagún, Spain, he arrived in New Spain in 1529 and immersed himself in Nahuatl language and indigenous traditions, collaborating with native informants to create one of the most comprehensive accounts of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. His monumental twelve-volume Florentine Codex, compiled over decades in the 16th century, preserves invaluable knowledge on Aztec religion, society, cosmology, and ecology, serving as a vital bridge between worlds and a cornerstone of Mesoamerican studies. Sahagún's meticulous scholarship, blending European methodology with indigenous perspectives, continues to illuminate the richness of Nahua civilization.