LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Aztec: Spanish
built 618 days ago
There are few extant Aztec codices created before the conquest and these are largely ritual texts. Post-conquest codices, like Codex Mendoza or Codex Rios, were painted by Aztec tlacuilos (codex creators), but under the control of Spanish authorities. The possibility of Spanish influence poses potential problems for those studying the post-conquest codices.
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These modern syntheses draw heavily on Spanish and Aztec sources dating to the period of the conquest. The number of such sources is truly huge and its examination is giving a large body of scholars a full life's work. Even though such sources are voluminous and ponderous, and their study requires specialized knowledge in such fields as archaic Spanish, classical Nahuatl, colonial law, etc., there are at least a few that are de rigeur for persons attempting to understand Aztec history. Foremost among these would be Fray Bernardino de Sahagún's "
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The previous examples are taken from the Codex Mendoza, and they provide both the Aztec and Spanish versions of the information they are conveying. On the left, you can see the a bundle topped by a series of five flags, which is the number 100 (5 x 20), and is reflected by the Spanish caption "çient cargas de cacao", meaning "100 loads of cacao beans". In the middle, the Aztec representation is that of four flags and a bird, which is mirroed in the Spanish caption "ochenta pieles de pajaros deste color", or "80 pelts of birds of this color". And finally, on the right, the caption "cccc manojo de plumas coloradas" meant "400 bundles of red feathers" and is shown in Aztec as a schematic, black feather (400) with a bundle of red feathers.
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