The Hermeneutical Horizon and the Ethnohistoric Value in the Philological Annotation of the «Libro de los ritos» (1579) Written by friar Diego Durán (OP)

Abstract

The following discussion offers a panorama of the hermeneutical horizon from which the philological annotation apparatus of the Libro de los ritos critical edition was created. The book, written by the Dominican friar Diego Durán in 1579, describes the religious life of the Nahua people with emphasis in the Mexicas or Aztecs of the postclassical period. Also, this work offers some considerations about the ethnohistorical value of the Libro de los ritos and explains how this idea was used as a hypothesis to create the philological annotation apparatus of the critical edition. The value of the analysis of this experience is the contribution that it offers to the discussion between philologists about the proper methodology that must be used for the critical annotation of the Indian chronicles, documents that conserve the memory of the Native American people.