Quotes:Sahagún, Bernardino de

Zirkoff, Boris

Sahagún, Bernardino de. Spanish historian and Franciscan friar, b. at Sahagún (Leon) in the beginning of the 16th century; died at Tlaltelolco (Mexico) in 1590. Studied at Salamanca University and came as a missionary to Mexico, 1529, where he distinguished himself by the purity of his life and his great zeal in educating the natives. Eventually he devoted his entire time and energies to the study of the antiquities of the Aztecs, gathering his information from natives whose language he had learned to perfection. His great work, Historia Universal de Nueva España, was written in the Mexican language. His liberal views with regard to the natives and their beliefs resulted in a deep-seated opposition on the part of his ecclesiastical brethren who refused to allow him the necessary aid in transcribing his papers. His MSS became scattered in different religious houses. Sahagun then drew up a brief statement of the nature and contents of his work and forwarded it to Madrid, where it fell into the hands of Don Juan de Ovando, Pres, of the Council of the Indies; he ordered the MSS. to be restored to their author, with the request that he at once set about translating them into Castilian. The octogenarian author undertook and completed the task, and his work, in two bulky volumes in folio, containing the Aztec and Spanish texts, as well as numerous paintings, was sent to Madrid. From that time on, the work disappears for more than two centuries. Towards the close of the 18th century, Muñoz disinterred it from the library of a convent at Tolosa, in Navarre, transcribed it and added it to his own inestimable collection. From this transcript, Lord Kingsborough (q.v. in the present Appendix) was able to procure the copy which was published in 1830, in the Sixth Volume of his great compilation. Curiously enough, the year preceding, an edition of it, with annotations, appeared in Mexico, in three volumes, prepared by Bustamente from a copy of the Muñoz MS. The work has been translated into English by A. J. O. Anderson and publ. by the Univ, of Utah, 1950.

Sahagún wrote other works concerned with the antiquities and language of the Aztecs, but they have not yet been published. He lived to a very advanced age, and was remembered for his unaffected piety, benevolence and great learning.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 2, p. 543