Details

Subjects:

Nahuatl language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Nahuatl language.
Language and languages.
Indians of Central America.
Guatemala.
Nahuatl language -- Texts -- Early works to 1800.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Guatemala -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.

Form/Genre:

Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Codices.
Glossaries.
Manuscripts, Spanish.
Texts.
Controlled vocabularies.

Language:

Nahuatl, with notes in Spanish and vocabulary words in Spanish and German.

Summary:

Two documents giving examples of the Nahuatl language: a 17th-century legal document and a late 19th-century vocabulary by Franz Bromowicz, sewn together. The legal document comprises extracts from the parish archives of San Cristobál Acasaguastlán, dated from 1610 to 1637. (For a draft letter of Berendt to the parish priest, dated 24 February 1878, concerning his receipt of this document, see Ms. Coll. 700, Item 244.) The vocabulary is prefaced by an account in Spanish by Angel Flores of Bromowicz's linguistic efforts, bearing the municipal stamp of San Agustin. Equivalents of the Nahuatl words are given in Spanish and also sometimes German. A note by C. Hermann Berendt in German at the head of the vocabulary list gives Bromowicz's source as a 100-year-old woman named Dolores Corral who could still remember the language.

Contents:

1. ff. 1r-4v: Legal document.
2. ff. 1r-6v: Vocabulary (f. 6 blank).

Notes:

Ms. gathering.
Title from paper cover; dates from documents (1636, f. 4v; 1878, f. 1r).
Collation: Paper, ff. iii + 4 + i + 6 + ii. The last leaf of the vocabulary has a watermark of a horse facing left above a horizontal braid and the word GOMA.
Binding: Documents separated and surrounded by contemporary paper, sewn together, laid in an unattached paper cover.
Condition: The 17th-century document is brittle; due to ink oxidation, there is a hole in the first leaf and there is more minor oxidation on the second leaf.
Origin: Written in San Agustin Acasaguastlan (Guatemala), in 1636 and 1878.

Penn Provenance:

Legal document from the parish archives of San Cristobál Acasaguastlán, given to Berendt by the parish priest, José Inocenta Cordon, in 1878 (note by Berendt in pencil, f. i).
From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on cover).

Cited in:

Described in Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Catalogue of the Berendt Linguistic Collection (Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 1900), p. 28 (no. 149).
Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 666 (no. 117).
Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 273 (no. 3033).

Publications about:

Brinton, Daniel G. "On the so-called Alaguilac language of Guatemala." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 24 (1887): 366-377. Includes a transcription of the 17th-century legal document contained in the present manuscript.

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 149

Contributor:

Bromowicz, Franz.
Cordon, José Inocenta, former owner.
Berendt, C. Hermann (Carl Hermann), 1817-1878, former owner.
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899, former owner.

OCLC:

155928864