events or commentary. He developed a methodology with the following elements: He used the indigenous Nahuatl language. He elicited information from elders, cultural authorities publicly recognized as the most knowledgeable. He adapted the project to the ways in which Aztec culture recorded and transmitted knowledge. He used the expertise of his former students at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, whom he credited by name. He attempted to capture the totality or complete reality of Aztec culture on its own terms. He structured his inquiry by using questionnaires, but also could adapt to using more valuable information shared with him by other means. He attended to the diverse ways that diverse meanings are transmitted through Nahuatl linguistics. He undertook a comparative evaluation of information, drawing from multiple sources, in order to determine the degree of confidence with which he could regard that information. He collected information on the conquest of the Aztec Empire from the point of view of the Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco, that had been defeated. These methodological innovations substantiate historians' claim that Sahagún was the first anthropologist. Most of the Florentine Codex is alphabetic text in Nahuatl and Spanish, but its 2,000 pictures provide vivid images of sixteenth-century New Spain. Some of these images directly support the alphabetic text; others are thematically related; others are for seemingly decorative purposes. Some are colorful and large, taking up most of a page; others are black and white sketches. The pictorial images offer remarkable detail about life in New Spain, but they do not bear titles, and the relationship of some to the adjoining text is not always self-evident. They can be considered a "third column of language" in the manuscript. Several different artists' hands have been identified, and many questions about their accuracy have been raised. The drawings convey a blend of Indigenous and European artistic elements and cultural influences. Many passages of the texts in the Florentine Codex present descriptions of like items (e.g., gods, classes of people, animals) according to consistent patterns. Because of this, scholars have concluded that Sahagún used a series of questionnaires to structure his interviews and collect data. For instance, the following questions appear to have been used to gather information about the gods for Book One: What are the titles, the attributes, or the characteristics of the god? What were his powers? What ceremonies were performed in his honor? What was his attire? For