Scenes from the Spanish Conquest of the Mexica

A member of the Franciscan order, the Spaniard Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) was one of the earliest missionaries to arrive in Mexico. Although committed to converting the native population of Mexico to Christianity, Sahagún learned the Aztec language of Nahuatl and helped compile an extensive study of Aztec culture and religious beliefs. This work raised concern among Sahagún’s superiors for its sympathetic portrayal of the Aztec people. For this reason, his works were lost for more than two hundred years until their eventual discovery in a library in Florence. The manuscript contains writing in Nahuatl, occasionally with a Spanish translation, in addition to numerous illustrations made by native artists. Even though the text was influenced by European ideas — for example, the Mexica gods are called devils — it is one of the few sources written in a native language about the conquest. The illustration here shows the beginning of the conflict between the Spanish and the Mexica, when King Moctezuma was captured and put in chains.

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