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Record Details
Relation des choses de Yucatan de Diego de Landa: texte espagnol et traduction française en regard comprenant les signes du calendrier et de l’alphabet hiéroglyphique de la langue maya accompagnß de documents divers historiques et chronologiques, avec une grammaire et un vocabulaire abrégés français-maya précédés d’un essai sur les sources de l’histoire primitive du Mexique et de l’Amérique centrale, etc., d’après les monuments égyptiens et de l’histoire primitive de l’Égypte d’après les monuments américains par l’abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg.
Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1864
Physical Description: [4], CXII, 516 p. : ill. ; 26 cm. (8vo)
Call number: E861/ B823c/ v.3
Accession number: 05824
Notes: V. 3 of “Collection de documents dans les langues indigènes”. Brasseur de Bourbourg’s foreword (p. I-VIII) and introductory essay on Egyptian records relating to early history of Mexico and Central America, and American records relating to early Egyptian history (p. [IX]-CXII) are in French. Landa’s “Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan”, in Spanish and French on facing pages, contains historical, geographical, and ethnographic data relating to the Yucatan and its inhabitants, including sections on social organization, religion, amd architecture, with detailed exposition of calendrical concepts, symbols and terminology (p. [1]-347). Chapter XLI deals with the Maya writing system (p. 312-323). Also includes: “Del principio y fundacion destos cuyos omules deste sitio y pueblo de Ytzmal sacada de la parte primera de la obra del Padre Lizana titulada Historia de Nuestra Señora de Ytzmal” [French orthography: Izamal] with facing Spanish and French text (p. [348]-365); “Cronologica antigua de Yucatan y examen del metodo con que los Indios contaban el tiempo, sacada de various documentos antiguos, por Don Juan Pio Perez, jefe politico de Peto, Yucatan” with further calendrical data with facing Spanish and French text (p. [366]-419); “Lelo lai u tzolan katunil ti Mayab” or “Série des epoques de l’histoire Maya” with facing Maya and French text (p. [420]429); and “Écrit de Frère Romain Pane des Antiquités des Indiens, qu’il a receuillies avec soin en homme qui sait leur langue” in French (p. [431]-458). The “Esquisse d’une grammaire de la langue maya d’après celles de Beltran et de Ruz” (p. [459]-479), in French with Maya examples, emphasizes verb formations; concludes with Joaquin Ruz’s Maya version of the Lord’s Prayer, Ave Maria and Apostles’ Creed, with French translation in parallel column. Brasseur de Bourbourg’s copious footnotes in all above-named texts contain extensive bibliographical references as well as linguistic and cultural comparisons of Amerindian, Eurasian and Egyptian data. The “Vocabulaire maya-français d’après divers auteurs anciens et modernes” (p. [480]-506) lists approximately 2000 terms in Maya with French equivalents; also contains all numbers 1-100 in Maya. “Quelques vestiges d’un vocabulaire de l’ancienne langue de Haiti et de ses dialectes” contains French equivalents for approximately 300 [Taino?] entries, some taken selectively from Columbus and other early writers on the Antilles and from Rafinesque; includes data on the Eyeri dialect spoken in “Borriquen ou Porto-Rico” (p. [507-512]). A manuscript appendix with “A brief Maya vocabulary”, on 2 folded leaves tipped in between p. 514 and 515, lists over 100 terms in English with Maya equivalents.
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Languages: Arawakan languages / Maya / Taino
Genre: Catechisms and Creeds / Dictionary / Grammar
Region: Caribbean Islands / Spanish America
