Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana

Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana is a bilingual dictionary of Spanish and Nahuatl by Alonso de Molina, first published in 1555 originally entitled Aquí comiença un vocabulario en la lengua castellana y mexicana, edited by Juan Pablos. It was the first dictionary to be published in the New World. However the most relevant and most famous edition was the one made in 1571, edited by Antonio de Spinosa, which then came to be named Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana. This new edition included the Nahuatl-to-Spanish section that the original didn't.

The Franciscan missionaries promoted the writing of literature works to evangelize the Indians in their own language, Nahuatl being one of the most important considering that it was spoken throughout New Spain. After the Council of Trent, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church recommended to preach in indigenous languages. During the rule of viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza, Molina published Spanish-to-Nahuatl and Nahuatl-to-Spanish vocabularies to help the formation of priests that were to accomplish the evangelizing assignments.

Molina's Vocabulario is considered the most important dictionary of the Classical Nahuatl language and has continued to be reprinted into the 20th century. It is typically referred to simply as Molina.

First printed vocabulary of an indigenous language

It is believed that Nahuatl was the first of the indigenous languages of the Americas to be linguistically studied, since the first preserved grammar of an American language is Arte de la lengua mexicana (1547) by Andrés de Olmos; moreover, shortly after in 1555, the first vocabulary of an indigenous language was published: Molina's vocabulary.