Diego Duran: Historia De Las Indias De Nueva Espana (Spain, Mexico).

Abstract

The research presented in this thesis represents an initial approach to the underst and ing of Diego Duran's Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana as a formative text in the development of a European directed interpretation of pre-Columbian Mexico. Duran's Historia is examined as one of several related latter sixteenth century documents revealing essentially native historical and popular traditions expressed in accordance with the precepts of their authors' Spanish educators. Duran, his Dominican education, the source materials of the Historia, and the organization of these materials in a comprehensive exposition guided by the principles of Renaissance historiography are the subjects of this study. We begin with Diego Duran's declared purpose for the writing of his Historia: to show that Aztec and Old Testament Jewish history are one and the same, a theory enjoying a degree of currency in the writer's epoch. After examining his initial arguments, we trace the development of Duran's Mexican-Biblical parallels and discover, by means of exhaustive cross referencing with other historical works of the era, that Duran's sources may owe more to the Holy Scriptures than to authentically pre-Columbian native testimony. Included in this study are an analysis of available editions of the Historia de las Indias, a thorough documentation of previous research devoted to Historia issues (the Tovar condensations, etc.), and a complete review of sixteenth century Franciscan, Jesuit, and Dominican works devoted to the Nahuas of Mexico.