Florentine Codex and deals with information gathered by Indian scribes. The codex is twelve volumes in length and was collected after the conquests of the Mexica by Spain. Clendinnen states that though the Codex has fallen out of favour with scholars,`they still use them extensivly' 3.The main writing format consists of `essays-tentative,discusive explorations'4. using `multiple,oblique and angled approaches,wherepossible against the grain of expectation.'5. Clendinnen begins in the city of Tenochtitlan, and explains it's power and prestige to both the Mexica people and the first Spaniards who entered the city in 1519. To them the city must have appeared as a vision,`These great towns and pyramids and buildings rising from the water,all made of stone,seemed like an enchanted vision from the tale of Amadis.Indeed,some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream' 6.Next, she explains the different and varied roles played by the people within the city. Warriors,who went to war with neighbouring city's not for gold or silver, but for captives. The more captives a warrior had, the more respect and promotional oppurtunity he was granted.`To be born a male in Tenochtitlan was to be designated a warrior' 7. Priests, merchants, wives, children and mothers, all played a vital part in the city's running and rituals. Clendinnen then goes into more detail about rituals and aesthetics and how important the artisans and artists were to the Mexica and especially the poets and songcrafters `commoners with talent finding an open way into Moctezoma's favour,the palace and reknown.' 8. Lastly,Clendinnen discusses in breif the arrival of Cortes in 1519 and his march toward the capitol. How culturally different the two races were and how Cortes and his men misunderstood the 'gifts' of Moctezoma. The 'gifts' given by Moctezoma were `statements of dominance:gestures of wealth and unmatchable liberality made the more glorious by the extrave...
