Bernardino de Sahagun

["Franciscan Friar", "Pioneer Ethnographer", "Linguist", "Author of the Florentine Codex"]

Born c. 1499

Sahagun (Leon), Spain

Passed Away Feb 05, 1590 Tlatelolco (Mexico City), New Spain (Mexico)

Lifespan 91 years old

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Notice / Correction

"I strove to write everything in the Mexican language, so that their wisdom, customs, and medicine would not perish from the memory of the Earth."

Archival Overview

Franciscan friar and visionary linguist acclaimed as the 'First Anthropologist of the Americas', who spent sixty years documenting Nahua culture, religion, and botany in the twelve-volume bilingual Florentine Codex.

Biographical Record

Bernardino de Sahagun (c. 1499–1590) arrived in Mexico in 1529 and became a professor of Latin and rhetoric at the pioneering Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, where indigenous Aztec noble youths were educated in European classical scholarship alongside their native traditions.

Mastering the Nahuatl language, Sahagun developed groundbreaking ethnographic field methods, interviewing Nahua elders and recording their knowledge of philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and history in Nahuatl alongside Spanish translations. His monumental Florentine Codex rescued Aztec civilization from deliberate colonial erasure.

Key Life Milestones

1536

Teaching at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco

Pioneered higher education for indigenous Nahua scholars in Mexico.

1577

Completion of the Florentine Codex

Completed the twelve-volume encyclopedia of Aztec culture and natural sciences in bilingual Nahuatl and Spanish.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Convento de San Francisco (Historical Site)
Mexico City, Mexico

                         GPS: 19.4333, -99.1417                    

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