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i recently learned about the herbal "Amate-cehuatl-xihuitl-pitli", most frequently called in English sources either "Codex Cruz-Badiano" or "Codex Badiano". it is a 1552 Mexica herbal. the Nahuatl original by Martín de la Cruz no longer exists, and only the latin translation by Badiano is available.

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Pure beauty! I've noticed one thing here, on the 3rd page, which made me wonder — I can see letter eszett, double ss there, which is used in German only nowadays — but when and where did it appear? where else it was used? my knowledge is a bit approximate :)

Funny that 2 of their illustrations aren't printing, but engraving. The interplay of glyphs between calligraphy engraving and printing must be very complex &is way beyond my knowledge. Could be an interesting book project for someone like you whose expertise spans all of these @infonta.bsky.social

Martín de la Cruz was a Tlatelolca physician with a doctorate from the Colegio de la Santa Cruz, which i gather was the first European style college in the region. it's a little difficult to find info but i gather he may have been an herbal physician specifically.

i love old herbals and am planning to put them into my game as something you can read functionally or write yourself. i specifically don't want to reflect only European traditions, so it's fascinating for perspective to see one which documents this Mexica tradition!

it's a tragedy that so much cultural suppression occurred during the colonial era. and also in the present day- for instance none of the English language references i found had the name of the text! i had to find a Spanish herbal anthropology paper to learn it's called "Amate-cehuatl-xihuitl-pitli".