John Carter Brown Library

Indian Languages Database

Record Details

 

Solano, Félix, fl. 1578.

Vocabulario en lengua castellana y guatemalteca que se llama Cak chi quel chi

s.l.: , [ca. 1856]

Physical Description: [249] leaves ; 35 cm.

Call number: 2-SIZE Codex / Ind / 37

Accession number: 04874

Notes: Ms. codex. Title from caption on p. [1]. The caption title is written in the same hand that wrote the Cakchikel meaning, in blue ink, on the right column of each page.

Spanish and Cakchikel dictionary, which first appeared in manuscript between 1579 and 1598, as dated by a photographic reproduction in the Newberry Library (date based on comparison with other documents from the Gates collection (cf. Ayer MS 1514), and on Gates' 1937 catalogue, nos. 379-383). The work in hand appears in a 19th century reproduction which has been transcribed about 1856 for the ethnographer E.G. Squier.

The original manuscript, and the modern transcription, were compiled by Father Félix Solano around 1578. Preliminary sections contain terms for counting in Cakchikel, and Cakchikel names for parts of the body. The dictionary, which begins on leaf [1], lists Spanish words and phrases in alphabetical order, from "apara llamar, si es a hombre" to "zumbar el abeja," followed by their equivalents in Cakchikel. Crosses preceding some entries may indicate that the Cakchikel equivalents given are also the same in Quiché (cf. Ayer MS 1513).

This modern transcription is written in two hands; the Spanish word is given on the left column in black ink in a long italic hand; the Cakchikel meaning is given in blue ink, in a different hand, on the right column of each page. John Carter Brown Library copy has ms. annotation, presumably in hand of former owner, at head of caption title page reading: "Contains 16,000 words".

John Carter Brown Library copy bound in late 19th century full brown morocco. Provenance of the John Carter Brown Library copy: E.Geo. Squier, Paris, 1856: ms. autograph on recto of first front flyleaf; "Bough at the sale of Mr. Squier's books New York April 24 et seq. H.C.M. [i.e. Henry Cruse Murphy]: ms. inscription on recto of second front flyleaf.

Digital facsimile copy of book available.

Languages: Cakchikel

Genre: Dictionary

Region: Spanish America