“It is the middle of a plague — ‘a pestilence so great and universal, that already it has been three months since it started, and many have died and many more continue to die.’ This does little to stop a group of scholars who have sealed themselves off from the world in a Mexico City convent, where they toil on a series of volumes devoted to indigenous knowledge.” Carolina Miranda recounts the story of the Historia General de las cosas de la Nueva España, a 12-volume manuscript from 1576 now known as the Florentine Codex. – Los Angeles Times