Ballads of the Lords of New Spain & the Cantares Mexicanos

Fantastic news!  I recently picked up a copy of John Bierhorst’s English translation of the Ballads of the Lords of New Spain (better known as the codex Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España), and discovered a note in the prefatory material of great interest.  The University of Texas and Stanford University have completed an incredibly generous project, something that I’ve been hoping someone would do for years.  Enough suspense, I’ll tell you what it is now.

Complete, full-text copies of both the Romances and the Cantares online, complete with commentary and material for comparative study of the two song texts, a Nahuatl-English concordance dictionary, relevant photos and scans from various codices relating to poetry and music, and even audio of performances of some of the actual sixteenth-century drum rhythms intended for the teponaztli, or wooden slit drum, based on the only piece of sheet music preserved recording actual Aztec music.

Folks, this is a huge deal, I can’t state it strongly enough.  This is the vast majority of pre-Conquest and early Colonial Aztec poetry and song that has been preserved, in English and Nahuatl, searchable and complete, available for absolutely free, for the first time ever.  Most of this material has previously been extremely difficult to get a hold of or flat-out unavailable (no complete English edition of the Romances existed before 2009), not to mention expensive.  I own a near-mint paper copy of Bierhorst’s translation of the Cantares Mexicanos, which was produced in a limited run by Stanford University and has been out of print since 1985.  It took me almost two years of scanning numerous international book selling services online to eventually secure a copy for under $250.  You will never have to go through this difficulty and expense to study this collection of breathtakingly-beautiful poetry, as Stanford University has generously put a full copy of the Cantares Mexicanos on this same website in PDF format, that you can download for free.

Go HERE to the home page of the Ballads of the Lords of New Spain!

And go HERE to download a full PDF copy of the Cantares Mexicanos!

Also HERE for a full PDF copy of the Nahuatl-English Concordance & Dictionary volume for the Cantares Mexicanos!

Finally, go HERE for a list of post-publishing corrections to the Cantares!

In short, many thanks to the University of Texas, Stanford University, and Mr. Bierhorst for making this amazing resource available to all, it’s a move reminiscent of the great wave of public library and museum foundings in the USA in the 19th and early 20th centuries that have been such a force for learning and research.  To my readers, I highly encourage you to pick up a print copy of the Ballads in order to support more projects like these in the future, and to give back to those involved in this one.  Besides, it’s just nice to have a physical copy of a good book to curl up with.

I’ll be back to discuss these two works of Aztec poetry and song later on, but I just couldn’t wait to share these books with you now.  Happy reading!

Flower and Song, Plate 2 of the Codex Borbonicus

*****

All links updated & more materials uploaded by U.Texas linked on 2/24/2013, courtesy of an alert reader.  Thanks M.P.!

February 18, 2012 | Categories: Arts & Sciences, Audio, Culture, Interpretations, Language, Literature, Media, Religion | Tags: adorar, amoxtli, antes de la conquista, audio, Aztec, Aztec music, Azteca, ética, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain, belief, book, Cantares Mexicanos, ceremonia, ceremony, Colonial, concordance, Conquest, Conquista, creencia, cuicatl, cultura, culture, dios, dioses, discurso, download, drum, drum rhythms, escrito, ethics, faith, fe, filosofía, flower and song, glifo, glyph, god, goddess, gods, huehuetl, idea, in xóchitl in cuicatl, indígena, Indian, indigenous, indio, John Bierhorst, la religión de los aztecas, language, lengua, libro, listen, literatura, literature, música, Mesoamerica, Mexica, Mexicayotl, Mexico, moral, morality, music, Nahua, Nahuatl, Nahuatl-English Dictionary, nahuatlatolli, New Spain, Nueva España, palabras, philosophy, pictograma, pictograph, poem, poema, poetry, pre-Columbian, pre-Conquest, Pre-Hispanic, Precolumbian, preconquest, Prehispanic, reflexión, religion, Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España, song texts, speech, Stanford University, teología, Teotl, teponaztli, Teteo, theology, thought, tlatolli, tradicional, traditional, University of Texas, wooden drum, wooden slit drum, words, worship, writing | 2 Comments