Diego Durán (c. 1537 – 1588) was a

Dominican friar The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius ...

best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the

Aztecs The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the ...

, ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'', a book that was much criticised in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their culture. Also known as the Durán

Codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

, ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'' was completed in about 1581. Durán also wrote ''Book of the Gods and Rites'' (1574–1576), and ''Ancient Calendar'' (c. 1579). He was fluent in

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

, the Aztec language, and was therefore able to consult natives and

Aztec codices Aztec codices ( , sing. ''codex'') are Mesoamerican manuscripts made by the pre-Columbian Aztec, and their Nahuatl-speaking descendants during the colonial period in Mexico. Most of their content is pictorial in nature and they come from ...

as well as work done by earlier friars. His empathetic nature allowed him to gain the confidence of many native people who would not share their stories with other Europeans, and was able to document many previously unknown folktales and legends that make his work unique.

Early life

Durán was born sometime around 1537 in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. His family traveled to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

when he was about seven years old. Later he wrote "although I did not acquire my milk teeth in Texcoco, I got my second ones there."Diego Durán, cited in Doris Heyden, "Diego Durán", in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'', vol. 1, Chicago: Fitzroy and Dearborn, 1997, p. 421. Durán grew up in Tetzcoco ( Texcoco), in the present state of Mexico, an important learning center where there had been an extensive pre-Hispanic library of books in pictorial form, now called "codices". The inhabitants of Tetzcoco spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec, and the boy soon spoke it as well as his native Spanish. This served him well in his later work among the natives as a friar and as an ethnographer, interviewing Nahuatl-speaking people in rural areas. When he was still young, his family moved to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

where he attended school and was exposed to

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

culture under the colonial rule of

, as well as the many Africans brought by the Spanish as slaves. According to Heyden, Durán was often puzzled by the mix of races and cultures and their significance for social class.

Life within the Church

In 1556 he entered the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

and was sent to

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

in 1561 after being trained in

. He resided for a time at a

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

, or friary, in

Oaxtepec Oaxtepec is a town within the municipality of Yautepec de Zaragoza, Yautepec and the Cuautla, Morelos, Cuautla metropolitan area in the eastern part of the Mexican state of Morelos. Its main industry is tourism, mostly aimed at the inhabitants of ne ...

, and there he found many informants within the Church. He is believed to have been tutored by Dominican Fray Francisco de Aguilar, who had once been a soldier involved in the siege of Tenochtitlan. Aguilar later joined the Dominican order, and had much to tell Durán about the Aztecs at first contact. He was cited frequently by Durán in his ''History''. Durán later became a vicar at a convent in Hueyapan and it was there that he learned the most from the native Nahuas. The convents had been issued a decree by Charles V to preach the Christian word to native rural villages and Durán ventured into the villages frequently to converse with the natives there. The clergy were to also observe native customs and to search for ancient documents particularly the lost Holy Scriptures of Saint Thomas (who was believed to have been the basis for the Aztecs' Quetzalcoatl). He developed a close association with the people he was attempting to convert, which led him to criticize the clerics and

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

who never learned the natives' language, writing "they should know the language well and understand he peopleif they have any pretense of obtaining fruit. And the clergy should not acquiesce by saying they need know only enough of the tongue in order to hear

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...

and that is enough." (''Book of the Gods and Rites'') and scorns the Spaniards' crude use of the language that made the natives scoff. Durán was torn between two worlds, his own people, and the Aztecs. On one hand, he respected the Aztecs and their governmental organization before the conquest; and he grew to admire the native people of Mexico, and often said so. On the other hand, he was repulsed by certain acts of his native informants, particularly human sacrifice. It was, after all, his duty to evangelize them and his

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

background gave him a great disdain for such things. Another of his duties was to document the cultural ways and practices of the native people to serve as a manual for other monks in their attempt to evangelize them. Although his purpose was to detail the "heathen practices" as a manual for other missionaries, he also wanted to make it pleasant to read and useful to others. In 1585, Durán returned to Mexico City in ill health to live and work in the Convent of St. Dominic there, as a translator from

to Spanish for the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

. He died in 1588 of an unknown illness.

Historical works and influence

The ''History of the Indies of New Spain'', sometimes referred to as the Durán Codex, contains 78 chapters spanning from the Aztec creation story until after the

Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistad ...

, and includes a chronology of Aztec emperors. The friars of the 16th century borrowed one another's material without citation. Some scholars believe that the Durán Codex formed the basis for the Ramírez Codex although others believe that both Ramírez Codex and the Durán Codex relied on an earlier unknown work referred to as "Chronicle X". In 1596, Durán was cited as a source by Fray Agustín Dávila Padilla in his ''Historia de la fundación y discurso de la Provincia de Mexico''. The Durán Codex was unpublished until the 19th century, when it was found in the Library of Madrid by José Fernando Ramírez. In his ''Ancient Calendar'', Durán explains why his work would go so long without being published by saying "some persons (and they are not a few) say that my work will revive ancient customs and rites among the Indians", to which he replied that the Indians were quite good at secretly preserving their own customs and cultures and needed no outside help. Durán's work has become invaluable to

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and others studying

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

and scholars studying

Mesoamerican Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

ethnohistory Ethnohistory is the study of cultures and indigenous peoples customs by examining historical records as well as other sources of information on their lives and history. It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups that may or may ...

. Although there are few surviving Aztec codices written before the Spanish invasion, the more numerous post-conquest codices and near-contemporary works such as Durán's and Sahagún's are invaluable sources for the interpretation of archaeological theories and evidence, but more importantly for constructing a history of the natives from texts produced by the natives themselves, as exemplified in the

New Philology New Philology can refer to: * The nineteenth-century intellectual movement in philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary ...

References

External links

*View online a Durán Codex:
an article analyzing the Aztec Eight Commandments as documented by Durán
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duran, Diego Scholars of the Aztecs Historians of Mesoamerica Novohispanic Mesoamericanists 16th-century Spanish historians 1530s births 1588 deaths People from Morelos Spanish Dominicans Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries 16th-century Mesoamericanists 16th-century male writers Dominican missionaries in New Spain

Early life

Life within the Church

Historical works and influence

See also

References

Further reading

External links