Codices of Mexico and Their Extraordinary History

by Maria Sten

The Mexican Codices constitute one of the principal legacies of the indigenous cultures that enable us to penetrate their lives, beliefs, customs and history. From a point of view both didactic and readable, though for this no less documented nor remote from scientific and historic fact, Maria Sen has traced the vicissitudes and adventures of their discoverers, and their final destiny as museum or library pieces of inestimable value. Few "painted books" remain in the world, and the majority are outside Mexico and not easily accessible. In this book an attempt is made to recover something of what they should mean to the reader; text and pictures combine to relate for us some of the stories presented in them and to place them in their context of high universal value.

Genres: History

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se me hicieron super interesantes las historias alrededor de los códices que existen. El libro es muy ameno y divulgativo. ¡Me gustó mucho!

[Miya Kutchins · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really interesting but I think the first portion (the more history focused first 70 pages) was a bit too fast paced/surface level. Overall a cool book and important project

[Yakub · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a purple covered title that was called "The Mexican Codices and their Extraordinary History", I assume this is the same due to the same author. Really great accessible book, an easy read

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a rather odd book, poorly translated and informal in style. What is does is present the history of the codices recovered and still preserved from the cultures of the Aztecs, the Maya etc. The histories are sketchy as our knowledge of transmission are sketchy. Somewhat more complete, but still quite short, are anecdotal biographies of some of their discoverers, transmitters and interpreters. The book ends with some dubious translations of stories from the manuscripts.