Florentine Codex

Transforming understanding of early colonial Indigenous Mexico

drawing of a Mexica warrior in battle against during the conquest of Mexico

Mexica warrior, Book 12 of the Florentine Codex on the conquest of Mexico (detail). Ms. Mediceo Palatino 220, 1577, fol. 34. Courtesy the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT

About

Goal

This project provides unprecedented access to the Florentine Codex, an encyclopedic manuscript of early modern Mexico and Nahua knowledge. The Digital Florentine Codex—an enhanced online edition of the manuscript, complete with Nahuatl and Spanish transcriptions, English and Spanish translations, and searchable texts and images—will stimulate new lines of scholarship on Nahua visual arts and culture. Additional scholarly and educational resources about the conquest of Mexico will transform public understanding of this history by recentering Indigenous perspectives.  

Outcomes

  • The Digital Florentine Codex, an enhanced critical edition uniting the newly digitized codex with its transcriptions and translations
  • A digital publication titled Book 12 of the Florentine Codex: Nahua Visions and Voices of the Conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, focusing on the history of the conquest of Mexico (expected launch in 2025)
  • Lesson plans for K–12 educators on the conquest of Mexico, contrasting Indigenous and European perspectives (expected launch in 2025)

Background

Full Project Team & Collaborators

Contact the Team

Getty Staff

  1. Alicia Maria Houtrouw

    Project Manager

    ahoutrouw@getty.edu

  2. Kim Richter, PhD

    Principal Lead

    krichter@getty.edu

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Staff

Resources

Featured Resources

All Resources

News

Related

  1. ReCurrent: Resonance of the Codex

    Podcast episode

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  2. Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas

    Exhibition

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    Trace the development of luxury arts in the Americas from about 1000 BC to the arrival of Europeans in the early 16th century

  3. Indigenous Knowledge and the Making of Colonial Latin America

    Video playlist

    Recordings from a symposium about how indigenous knowledge contributed to the making of colonial Latin America.

  4. The Florentine Codex: Visual and Textual Dialogues in Colonial Mexico and Europe

    Event recording

    P&I Florentine Codex

  5. Imagining the Conquest of Mexico

    Event recording

  6. The Colors of the New World: Artists, Materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex

    Event recording