Details

Subjects:

Books of Chilam Balam.
Maya calendar -- Early works to 1800.
Maya language -- Texts.
Maya language.
Language and languages.
Indians of Central America.
Indians of Mexico -- Languages.
Mayas -- Prophecies.
Mayas.
Maya calendar.
Belize.
Guatemala.
Mexico.
Mayas -- History.
History.
Indians of Mexico -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Indians of Central America -- Belize -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Yucatán (Mexico : State) -- History -- Early works to 1800.
Mexico -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Guatemala -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Belize -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.

Form/Genre:

Texts.
Calendars (documents by form)
Translations (documents)
Manuscripts, Spanish.
Manuscripts, Mexican.

Language:

Maya and Spanish.

Summary:

Collection of copies of or extracts from various documents concerning Mayan history and culture, made by C. Hermann Berendt in a notebook of lined paper. This item is the second of 3 volumes; for vols. 1 and 3, see Ms. Coll. 700 Item 42 and Item 44. In the present notebook the table of contents (f. 2r) has 9 entries written in ink, and the 10th entry written faintly in pencil, in the same hand. The texts are drawn from documents in the collection of Juan Pío Pérez, and/or Chilam Balam books; topics are concentrated on histories, prophecies, and the calendar, or reckoning of time. The earliest date in the text is 1511 (p. 49). The first 8 pages of entry 1 (p. 2-9) give the Maya and the Spanish translation on facing pages (the remaining pages of that entry are in Spanish). Berendt's title page for entry 4 indicates that the original document is in the archive of the village of Chicxulub; and that a copy of it, accompanied by a Spanish translation by Manuel Encarnacion Avila, of Mérida, is in possession of Pedro Regil y Peón. The entry itself is entirely in Maya, with no Spanish translation; it ends with a section about the conquistadors, with extensive lists of names. Entry 9 is a Mayan version of the story known in Spanish as Historia de la donzella Teodor. With the notebook generally written in brown ink, Berendt uses red ink in entries 1 and 3 to show corrections from or comparisons with another source, with a note explaining what the red ink represents (p. 2, [37]). In entry 4, certain words are underlined in blue ink, with a note, also in blue, explaining what that signifies (p. 49). In entry 8, he uses red ink to write his own explanation or comment, which he then signs (p. 192, 204); in one instance, he has corrected in blue ink the years mentioned in the text, explaining that in doing so he is making up for a shift of 300 years that, for an unknown reason, was introduced by Pio Pérez, so that while the latest year appearing in Pio Pérez's version is 2003, Berendt indicates that the year should be 1703 (p. 221). (Discounting those corrected dates, the latest date appearing in the Mayan texts is 1796; p. 181.) Pencilled notes, often page-number references, also appear throughout the notebook.

Contents:

1. p. [1]-2: Épocas de la historia antigua de Yucatán del Chilam Balam de Chumayel / traducido y anotado por Juan Pío Pérez, copiado del original, de puño y letra de Don Juan Pío Pérez, en posesión del presbítero Don Crescencio Carrillo, Mérida, September de 1868.
2. p. [25]-36: Épocas de la historia antigua de Yucatán: tres versiones del Chilam Balam de Chumayel, copiado de un manuscrito en posesión del Señor presbitero Don Crescencio Carrillo.
3. p. [37]-45: Las profecías de los mayas del Chilam Balam de Chumayel, copiado del libro de Chilam Balam en poder del Señor Don Crescencio Carrillo.
4. p. [47]-84: Título de las tierras del pueblo Chacxulubchen (hoy Chicxulub), 1542, copiado en Mérida octobre de 1868.
5. p. [85]-105: Fragmentos sobre la cronología de los mayas de la colección de manuscritos en lengua maya hecha por Pío Pérez, copiado, Mérida, Octobre de 1868.
6. p. [107]-131: Las profecías de los mayas, dos versiones distintas de la colección de Pío Pérez, sacada la una del libro de Chilam Balam de Mani y la otia, ségun parece, del Chilam Balam de Yxil, copiado, Mérida, Octobre de 1868.
7. p. [133]-183: Parte del Chilam Balam de Mani en la colección de Pío Pérez, copiado, Mérida, Octobre 1868.
8. p. [185]-224: Pronósticos de los ahaues del Chilam Balam de Oxkutzcab, 1689, [en la] colleción de Pío Pérez, copiado, Mérida, noviembre 1868.
9. p. [225]-237: Historia de la doncella Teodora, copiado del Chilam Balam de Mani por Don Juan Pío Pérez, copiado Mérida, noviembre 1868.
10. p. 239-240: Apuntes del Chilam Balam de Mani de 1689 en la colección de Pío Pérez.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 1r).
Pagination: Paper, i + 121 + i leaves; [i-iv], 1-21, [22-25], 26-36, [37], 38-45, [46-48], 49-84, [85-86] 89-97, [98], 99-105, [106-108], 109-131, [132-134], 135-183, [184-186], 187-224, [225-226], 227-237, [238], 239-240; contemporary pagination in ink, upper outer corners. Folded leaf (extension of table) tipped in on p. 100. Partial leaf tipped in (p. 8).
Script: Written in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt.
Decoration: Wheel diagram in red and black ink (3 concentric circles divided into quadrants labeled with the cardinal directions, numbers arranged in an odd and an even series in the inner circle, words for calendar days in the outer band, and 13 identical faces circling the middle band; p. [98]); less elaborate wheel diagram in black ink (13 spokes dividing the circle into segments of equal size, 4 of which are made to stand out with addition of a mall semicircular crown extending beyond the outer circle, with 13 numbers circling the inner band, 13 small identical symbols in the middle one and words for calendar days in the outer band; p. 96); small symbols drawn in black ink scattered throughout (especially p. 90-96, 135-156); pointing hands (p. 148, 157, 160).
Binding: 19th-century boards; upper cover nearly detached; spine worn, with multiple tears; many gatherings and leaves loose or detached; title on spine in gilt lettering.
Origin: Written in Mérida, Mexico, in 1868.

Penn Provenance:

From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on title page).

Cited in:

Described in Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Catalogue of the Berendt Linguistic Collection (Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 1900), p. 12 (no. 43).
Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 660-661 (no. 104, vol. 2).
Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 70 (no. 391, vol. 2).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 43

Contributor:

Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899, former owner.
Pérez, Juan Pío, 1798-1859.

Contains:

Historia de la donzella Teodor.
Chilam Balam de Chumayel (Manuscript)
Chilam Balam de Mani.
Chilam Balam de Oxkutzcab.

OCLC:

463303617