Details

Standardized Title:

Annals of the Cakchiquels.

Other Title:

Anales de los cakchiqueles

Subjects:

Cakchikel language -- Texts.
Cakchikel literature.
Cakchikel Indians -- History.
Tzutuhil Indians.
Quiché Indians.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala -- History -- Early works to 1800.
Language and languages.
Indians of Central America.
History.
Cakchikel Indians.
Cakchikel language.
Guatemala -- Languages -- Early works to 1800.
Guatemala -- History -- To 1821.
Guatemala.

Form/Genre:

Genealogies (histories)
Chronicles.
Legal documents.
Manuscripts, Cakchikel.
Manuscripts, Latin American.
Texts.

Language:

Cakchikel, with title page and marginal notes in Spanish.

Summary:

Early seventeenth-century transcription in Cakchikel of a collection of documents concerning the Cakchikel Indians of Guatemala, who historically had established their capital in Iximché (Tecpán), and later, during colonial times, were living in Sololá. The manuscript is a fragment, ending abruptly. Most of the documents were composed by various members of the Xahila family, especially Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila and Francisco Diaz Gebuta Queha. The title page, in Spanish, was evidently provided by abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg sometime after his taking the manuscript into his possession in or around 1855. The early portion of the manuscript (p. 1-17) is a record of village and family incidents, including births, baptisms, and marriages, as well as accounts of disputes and the collection of contributions; the dates cited in those pages range from 1586 (p. 9) to 1619 (p. 15). The remainder of the manuscript (18-96) mainly chronicles the history of the Cakchikel Indians, from their legendary beginnings at Tulan until the early 17th century, with some aspects concerning relations with the Tzutuhil and Quiché Indians. A significant juncture in the chronicle, visually highlighted in the text, is marked by an internal revolt of a lineage group which took place at Iximché in the late 15th century (p. 48), and subsequent events are dated according to the length of time after this revolt. The arrival of the Spanish in 1524 is reported (p. 56). The writer of the final pages (p. 92-96) identifies himself as Don Pedro Elías Martin, whose account begins in 1584 (p. 92), when he became governor, and extends until 1596 (p. 96).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (p. i).
Pagination: Paper, ii + 2 (newer paper) + 48 + iii; [i-iv], 1-96; modern pagination in pencil, lower center, as well as modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto; all leaves of the manuscript are mounted on guards.
Layout: Written in approximately 33 to 38 long lines, with use of section markers and headings.
Script: Written in a non-cursive hand in indigo ink (Brinton), with marginal notes in Spanish in a different hand; title page is probably in the hand of abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg.
Decoration: Various pictographic symbols drawn in ink (p. 48, 49).
Binding: 19th-century half leather; upper cover detached.
Origin: Probably transcribed in Sololá, Guatemala, between 1619 (p. 15) and 1650 (Brinton).

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg (bookplate on title page: Ex Collectione Americana, Domini Brasseur de Bourbourg).
From the collection of Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamps on front endleaf and title page).

Cited in:

Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 252 (no. 2749).

Publications about:

Brinton, Daniel G. The annals of the Cakchiquels: the original text, with a translation, notes and introduction (Philadelphia: s.n., 1885; Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature, no. 6). Contains a transcription and translation of manuscript p. 18-61, and translation only of manuscript p. 61-67.
Recinos, Adrián, ed. and trans. Memorial de Sololá, anales de los cakchiqueles (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1950). Contains a Spanish translation of the entire manucript. An English version based on Recinos's Spanish translation was published in 1953 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953).
Maxwell, Judith M., and Robert M. Hill II, eds. and trans. Kaqchikel chronicles: the definitive edition (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006). Contains a transcription in modern Cakchikel orthography, with linguistic analysis and interlinear English translation, of all or most of the manuscript, although in a rearranged order.

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 221

Contributor:

Arana Xajilá, Francisco Hernández, approximately 1502-1581.
Díaz Gebuta Quej, Francisco, active 16th century.
Xahila family.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, abbé, 1814-1874, former owner.
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899, former owner.

OCLC:

733805902