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The Reformation · c. 1545–1579
The General History of the Things of New Spain
Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España
Bernardino de Sahagún and his Nahua collaborators · c. 1499–1590
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What it is
Twelve books on Nahua religion, government, medicine, trade, and natural history, compiled from interviews with elders and written in Nahuatl by native scribes.
Why it lasted
The first ethnography, produced to help missionaries recognise idolatry and now the principal source for Aztec civilisation in its own language.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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