Florentine Codex

According to Professor Charles E. Dibble, the Florentine Codex, folios 129v-130r, reads thus ... 

Baccharis multiflora, Baccharis spp. An infusion prepared from the leaves of B. multiflora, Baccharis spp. is said to be effective against catarrhs and was used for urinary problems in 19th century Mexico. Two unidentified species of this genus — quappatli and malinalli — are listed in the Florentine Codex as treatments for blotched face (applied internally) and for worms in the eyes and crab lice in the eyelids (especially applied externally), respectively. 

Teonandcatl, a sixteenth century drawing by a European from Sahagun s Florentine Codex. 

Among the Spanish friars in sixteenth-century Mexico, the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagun devoted himself to recording extensive descriptions and testimonies on the culture, history, and religion of the native peoples. The testimonies, recorded in Nahuatl and Spanish paraphrase, were preserved in numerous handwritten volumes known as the Florentine Codex. Wasson suggested that because Sahagun came from a family of Jewish converts in Spain, he perhaps had more instinctive sympathy for the conquered natives. In any event, his attitude, though pejorative, also had a certain kind of detachment and objectivity. 

Sahagiin, Bernardino de. 1956 [Sixteenth century]. The Florentine Codex. Sahagun s Spanish text and the Florentine Codex text translated by Angel Maria Garibay K. Porrua, Mexico. 

Sahagun, B. de 1982, Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana. Editorial Por-nia, Mexico City. This is a partial Spanish translation of the Nahuatl Florentine Codex. With a general proemium by Angel M. Garibay K., pp. i—14. 

PoyomatU (5, Note 13) In their translation of the Nahuatl Florentine Codex of... 

The medical uses of P. trinervia against fever can be tracked back to the XVI century. This plant was recorded in the Florentine Codex under the Nahuatl name "Cuapupoltzin" [11]. Sahagun wrote about it "...The root, cooked in water, is beneficial to whom suffers of excessive internal heat. The water (decoction) should be drunk. Therefore he (the patient) must eat and avoid drinking any other water. With this the heat is purged and mitigated."... 

Fig. (9). A drawing of the "xicama" plant [Pachyrrhizus erosus L. (Son)], taken from book eleven of the Florentine Codex.

A species of Cissus (C. sicyoides) is listed by Wallert (1995c) as forming the basis of an organic colourant used for dluminating manuscripts in Mesoamerica. The Aztec (Nahuatl) name, as derived from the sixteenth century Florentine Codex (Florence, BibUoteca Laurenziana MS Palatina 218-220) and others, is given as (possibly) matlali. 

SahagCn (1950-82) Sahagun, B. de Florentine Codex General history of the things of New Spain, books 1 12 A.J.O. Anderson and C.E. Dibble (trans.) School of American Research, Santa Fe and University of Utah, Salt Lake City (1950-82)... 

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