Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: UNIV OF ARIZONA PR
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780816518869ISBN:0816518866
Description: New. One of the great documents of colonial Mexico, the Codex Chimalpopoca chronicles the rise of Aztec civilization and preserves the mythology on which it was based. Its two complementary texts, Annals of Cuauhtitlan and Legend of the Suns, record the p... read more
"Bierhorst's book is an inestimable value for those that search for the origin of the Mexica. As an amateur historian and mexicanist, this book has given me such an amount of data (with its controversies) that I am busy for several months. It is a real scholarly book, with hundreds of ancient Mexican calendric dates, names of rulers and places, etc. But you need a basic education and to know some Mexican history in order to understand or enjoy it. I enjoyed it on my long flights to China and back, but you may find it dry and boring if you are not curious about Mexico or such chronicles (or annals) at all. It goes far back before the conquest of Cortes, and not an easy reading: it does not deal with post-conquest times. It is like an old Irish annal. It has no illustrations. The Legend of the suns as a chapter was very useful for me. In 1984, I demonstrated in my first English book that Mexican history began on October 23, 4004 BC, which year apparently ended up in archbishop James Ussher's hands and then in the King James version of the Bible. Thanks to the book of Bierhorst, read together with Ross Hassig's book about Time, History, etc. of the Aztecs, three days ago I was able to solve the riddle of the 5 suns, identifying the 5 absulute dates astronomically, when a new sun "was born." These two books ofered me most of the solution."
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