Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
Encyclopedia
Abbé
Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (8 September 1814 – 8 January 1874) was a noted French writer, ethnographer, historian
and archaeologist
. He became a specialist in Mesoamerica
n studies, travelling extensively in the region.
His writings, publications, and recovery of historical documents contributed much to knowledge of the region's languages, writing, history and culture, particularly those of the Maya
and Aztec
. However, his speculations concerning relationships between the ancient Maya and the lost continent of Atlantis
inspired Ignatius L. Donnelly and encouraged the pseudo-science of Mayanism
.
, a small town with many Flemish influences near Dunkirk, France, just as the First French Empire
was drawing to a close.
As a youth he went to Ghent
in the newly independent Belgian
state to study theology
and philosophy
.
He became interested in writing during his studies there, and in 1837 aged 23 he began contributing essays to a Paris
ian journal. He wrote several historical accounts (using a pseudonym), including one on Jerusalem. He published several novels in a Romantic
vein which was then very much in vogue. One of these, Le Sérapéon, received reviews which implied it bore a very close resemblance to François-René de Chateaubriand
's 1809 novel Les Martyrs.
Such near-allegations of plagiarism and inaccuracies in his works were to be made several times throughout his career.
Despite such criticisms, his reputation as a notable young writer and intellectual continued to develop. He transferred his studies and residence to Rome
, where in 1845 he was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood, at the age of 30.
, Abbé Charles-Félix Cazeau, to have Brasseur de Bourbourg assigned to a position in the seminary
there. Correspondence began in late 1844, with Abbé Gingras pressing his claims that the seminary should "...move heaven and earth to ensure that such a splendid bird does not escape us and fly to Montreal, where it would be so highly thought of".
A year later after having obtained his ordination, Brasseur de Bourbourg's post came through with approval from the Archbishop
, Joseph Signay
, and in the autumn of 1845 he left Europe bound for the British
colony of the Province of Canada
, stopping over briefly in Boston
on the way.
Upon his arrival in Quebec City
he began work as a professor of ecclesiastical history at the seminary (the Séminaire de Québec, founded in 1663). After only a brief time however, his series of lectures was discontinued, for some unspecified reason.
Perhaps having extra time, Brasseur de Bourbourg began a programme of research of the history of the Quebec archdiocese, and in particular of its 17th century founder, François de Laval
, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec (after whom the seminary's later incarnation as a University, the Université Laval
, is named). The results of his archival investigations were published in early 1846 as a biography of Laval. The contents of this pamphlet seemed to displease his Canadian colleagues somewhat, for a dispute began which made his position there uncertain, or at least uncomfortable. Also, he apparently disliked the harsh winter climate (to judge by some comments he made in the dedication of his later History of Canada), and may also have been a factor in his departure which was soon to ensue.
He left the seminary later during that year, returning to Boston where he found a position in the diocese of Boston
. The then current Bishop
, John Bernard Fitzpatrick
, with whom he was evidently on better terms than with his previous superiors, made him vicar-general of the diocese.
Towards the end of the year Brasseur de Bourbourg returned to Europe, to spend some time conducting research in the archives of Rome and Madrid, in preparation for a new project he was about to embark on—- travel to Central America.
_cover.jpg)
From 1848 to 1863 he travelled extensively as a missionary
in many parts of Mexico
and Central America
.
During these journeys he gave great attention to Mesoamerica
n antiquities and became well-versed in the then-current theories and knowledge about the history of the region and the Pre-Columbian
civilisations whose sites and monuments remained, yet were little understood.
Using information he had collected during his time spent travelling there, as well as that compiled by other scholars of his time, he published in 1857–1859 a history of the Aztec
civilization, containing what was then known or speculated about the former empire, which had been overrun and defeated some three hundred years previously by the Spanish conquistador
es in alliance with local enemies of the Aztecs.
He also conducted research into the local languages and their transliteration into the Latin alphabet
. Between 1861 and 1864 he edited and published a collection of documents in the indigenous languages.
In 1864 he was archaeologist to the French military expedition in Mexico, and his resulting work Monuments anciens du Mexique was published by the French Government in 1866.
for New World
materials, he came across an abridged copy of a manuscript which had originally been written by the Spanish cleric Diego de Landa
sometime around 1566. De Landa had been one of those charged with disseminating the Roman Catholic faith amongst the Maya peoples
in Spain's new Central American possessions in the period following the Spanish conquest of Yucatán
, and had lived there for several years. His manuscript (Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán) had been written upon his enforced return to Spain, where he faced trial for illegally or improperly conducting an Inquisition
(he was later absolved, returning to the New World as the appointed Bishop of Yucatán
). In the manuscript de Landa had recorded much information about the Maya peoples and customs, based on his own observations and discussions with Mayan informants. Brasseur de Bourbourg's main interest in the document, however, was a section in which de Landa reproduced what he called "an alphabet" of the as-yet undeciphered Maya hieroglyphics, the writing system
of the ancient Maya civilization
. In this passage de Landa had annotated the Mayan symbols (or glyph
s) which supposedly corresponded to the letters of the Spanish alphabet, as given to him by a Maya informant who he had quizzed. Brasseur de Bourbourg realised that this could prove to be the key to unlocking the secrets of the Maya script, and he announced this discovery when republishing the manuscript (in a bilingual Spanish-French edition) in late 1863 under the title, Relation des choses de Yucatán de Diego de Landa.
However, upon initial analysis by Brasseur de Bourbourg and others, the so-called "de Landa alphabet
" proved to be problematic and inconsistent, and these immediate attempts to use this alphabet as a kind of "Rosetta Stone
" to read the glyphs failed. Nevertheless, Brasseur de Bourbourg's uncovering of this document and de Landa's alphabet would much later prove to be vital in the eventual decipherment of the Maya glyphs. Brasseur de Bourbourg's attempts, and those of others which followed, were misled insofar as they interpreted the signs alphabet
ically. When the signs were recognised to be mainly syllabic
, significant progress was made.
, a sacred book of the Quiché (K'iche') Maya people. He included a grammar
of the K'iche' language
and an essay on Central American mythology
.
in Grammaire de la langue quichée (1862), in which he expressed his belief that the lost land described by Plato had existed with a high level of civilization before the rise of civilizations in Europe and Asia. He suggested that the origins of European and Persian words could be traced to indigenous languages of the Americas and that the ancient cultures of the New and Old Worlds had been in constant contact with one another.
In 1866, Monuments anciens du Mexique (Palenque, et autres ruines de l'ancienne civilisation du Mexique) was published with a text by Brasseur de Bourbourg accompanied by lavish illustrations by Jean-Frédéric Waldeck
. Although Waldeck's depictions of the ruins at Palenque were based on first-hand knowledge, his artistic reconstructions and embellishments implied a close relationship between Maya art and architecture and that of Classical antiquity
Greece and Rome. This was subsequently demonstrated to be spurious, but not before Waldeck's artwork had inspired speculations about contact between New and Old World civilizations, specifically via the lost continent of Atlantis
.
These speculations were reinforced by Brasseur de Bourboug's own references to Plato's descriptions of the culture and society of Atlantis, which Brasseur believed found expression in ancient Maya civilization, in his book Quatre Lettres sur le Méxique (1868). In this publication, Brasseur de Bourbourg drew extensive parallels between Maya and Egyptian pantheons and cosmologies, implying that they all had a common source on the lost continent of Atlantis. He developed these ideas further in Quatre lettres sur le Mexique (1868), which presents a history of Atlantis based on his interpretation of Maya myths. His writings inspired Augustus Le Plongeon
and also Ignatius L. Donnelly, whose book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
contains numerous references to Brasseur de Bourbourg's scholarship. However, an academic wrote in 1875 that not a single contemporary scholar accepted Brasseur de Bourbourg's theories about Atlantis.
The combination of Brasseur de Bourbourg's interests in spiritualism
and these speculations about connections between the ancient Maya and Atlantis laid the foundations for Mayanism
.
, a book made from paper-bark in the form of a folded screen of continuous pages, several metres in length when extended. The codex contained numerous signs and drawings, which Brasseur de Bourbourg was readily able to identify as being Mayan in origin, having seen and studied many similar markings and glyphs whilst in Central America.
Tro y Ortolano gave him permission to publish the codex in a reproduction, and Brasseur de Bourbourg gave it the name Troano Codex in his honour. His identification of the codex was significant, as it was the only third such Maya codex
to have been uncovered (the second, the Paris codex, had been discovered by the French scholar Léon de Rosny only a few years before). In particular, Brasseur de Bourbourg recognised its exceeding rarity, since de Landa's Relación, which he had earlier rediscovered, gave an account of how he had ordered the destruction of all such Maya codices he could find, and many volumes had been consigned to the flames.
In 1869–1870 Brasseur de Bourbourg published his analyses and interpretations of the content of the Troano codex in his work Manuscrit Troano, études sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas. He proposed some translations for the glyphs recorded in the codex, in part based on the associated pictures and in part on de Landa's alphabet, but his efforts were tentative and largely unsuccessful.
However, his translation would later inspire Augustus Le Plongeon
and thus lay the basis for the speculation on the lost continent of Mu
. The Name Mu actually goes back to Brasseur de Bourbourg.
A few years later, another Maya codex came to light in the hands of another collector, which became known as the Cortesianus codex (in the belief that it had been in the possession of Hernán Cortés
). When Léon de Rosny examined it later, he determined that it was actually a part of the Troano codex, the two parts having been separated at some indeterminate point in the past. The two parts were later rejoined and collectively are known as the Madrid or Tro-Cortesianus codex; they remain on display in Madrid.
In 1871 Brasseur de Bourbourg published his Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, a compendium of literature and sources associated with Mesoamerican studies.
His last article, "Chronologie historique des Mexicains" (1872) refers to the Codex Chimalpopoca and identifies four periods of world cataclysms that began about 10,500 BC and were the result of shifts in the Earth's axis (a concept related to pole shift theory
).
at the beginning of 1874, at the age of 59.
His linguistic and archaeological fieldwork, as well as his diligent collection, discovery and republication of source materials, proved to be highly useful for subsequent Mesoamerican researchers and scholars. The interpretations and theories he advanced mostly proved to be inaccurate.
A collection of travel accounts and reports which Brasseur de Bourbourg sent to the French Minister for Education and Religion from Mexico, Guatemala and Spain is stored at the Archives Nationales (Paris), F17, 2942.
Abbé
Abbé is the French word for abbot. It is the title for lower-ranking Catholic clergymen in France....
Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (8 September 1814 – 8 January 1874) was a noted French writer, ethnographer, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. He became a specialist in Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n studies, travelling extensively in the region.
His writings, publications, and recovery of historical documents contributed much to knowledge of the region's languages, writing, history and culture, particularly those of the Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
and Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
. However, his speculations concerning relationships between the ancient Maya and the lost continent of Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
inspired Ignatius L. Donnelly and encouraged the pseudo-science of Mayanism
Mayanism
Mayanism is a non-codified eclectic collection of New Age beliefs, influenced in part by Pre-Columbian Maya mythology and some folk beliefs of the modern Maya peoples...
.
Early life and writings
He was born in BourbourgBourbourg
Bourbourg is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is situated in the maritime plain of northern France, at the heart of a triangle formed by Dunkirk, Calais, and Saint-Omer.-Heraldry:-Historical sites:...
, a small town with many Flemish influences near Dunkirk, France, just as the First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
was drawing to a close.
As a youth he went to Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
in the newly independent Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
state to study theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
.
He became interested in writing during his studies there, and in 1837 aged 23 he began contributing essays to a Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian journal. He wrote several historical accounts (using a pseudonym), including one on Jerusalem. He published several novels in a Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
vein which was then very much in vogue. One of these, Le Sérapéon, received reviews which implied it bore a very close resemblance to François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.-Early life and exile:...
's 1809 novel Les Martyrs.
Such near-allegations of plagiarism and inaccuracies in his works were to be made several times throughout his career.
Despite such criticisms, his reputation as a notable young writer and intellectual continued to develop. He transferred his studies and residence to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where in 1845 he was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood, at the age of 30.
Dispatched to Quebec
A year previously he had come to the attention of the Canadian Abbé, Léon Gingras, whom he had met (and apparently impressed) in Rome. Abbé Gingras entreated his friend and colleague the vicar-general of QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Abbé Charles-Félix Cazeau, to have Brasseur de Bourbourg assigned to a position in the seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
there. Correspondence began in late 1844, with Abbé Gingras pressing his claims that the seminary should "...move heaven and earth to ensure that such a splendid bird does not escape us and fly to Montreal, where it would be so highly thought of".
A year later after having obtained his ordination, Brasseur de Bourbourg's post came through with approval from the Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
, Joseph Signay
Joseph Signay
Joseph Signay, , was the third archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec.Signay was ordained in 1802 by Bishop Pierre Denaut and began a number of years of parish duties. In 1814, he was appointed parish priest of Quebec by Archbishop Joseph-Octave Plessis...
, and in the autumn of 1845 he left Europe bound for the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
colony of the Province of Canada
Province of Canada
The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...
, stopping over briefly in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
on the way.
Upon his arrival in Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
he began work as a professor of ecclesiastical history at the seminary (the Séminaire de Québec, founded in 1663). After only a brief time however, his series of lectures was discontinued, for some unspecified reason.
Perhaps having extra time, Brasseur de Bourbourg began a programme of research of the history of the Quebec archdiocese, and in particular of its 17th century founder, François de Laval
François de Laval
This article is in part a sermon and generally comes close to hagiography.Blessed François-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval was the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec and was one of the most influential men of his day. He was appointed when he was 36 years old by Pope Alexander VII. He was a member...
, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec (after whom the seminary's later incarnation as a University, the Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
, is named). The results of his archival investigations were published in early 1846 as a biography of Laval. The contents of this pamphlet seemed to displease his Canadian colleagues somewhat, for a dispute began which made his position there uncertain, or at least uncomfortable. Also, he apparently disliked the harsh winter climate (to judge by some comments he made in the dedication of his later History of Canada), and may also have been a factor in his departure which was soon to ensue.
He left the seminary later during that year, returning to Boston where he found a position in the diocese of Boston
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States. It comprises several counties of the state of Massachusetts...
. The then current Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
, John Bernard Fitzpatrick
John Bernard Fitzpatrick
John Bernard Fitzpatrick was an Irish American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Boston from 1846 until his death in 1866.-Early life and education:...
, with whom he was evidently on better terms than with his previous superiors, made him vicar-general of the diocese.
Towards the end of the year Brasseur de Bourbourg returned to Europe, to spend some time conducting research in the archives of Rome and Madrid, in preparation for a new project he was about to embark on—- travel to Central America.
Travels and expeditions to Central America
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
in many parts of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
.
During these journeys he gave great attention to Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n antiquities and became well-versed in the then-current theories and knowledge about the history of the region and the Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
civilisations whose sites and monuments remained, yet were little understood.
Using information he had collected during his time spent travelling there, as well as that compiled by other scholars of his time, he published in 1857–1859 a history of the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
civilization, containing what was then known or speculated about the former empire, which had been overrun and defeated some three hundred years previously by the Spanish conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
es in alliance with local enemies of the Aztecs.
He also conducted research into the local languages and their transliteration into the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
. Between 1861 and 1864 he edited and published a collection of documents in the indigenous languages.
In 1864 he was archaeologist to the French military expedition in Mexico, and his resulting work Monuments anciens du Mexique was published by the French Government in 1866.
Discovery of de Landa's work
In 1862 whilst searching through archives at the Royal Academy of History in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
for New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
materials, he came across an abridged copy of a manuscript which had originally been written by the Spanish cleric Diego de Landa
Diego de Landa
Diego de Landa Calderón was a Spanish Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán. He left future generations with a mixed legacy in his writings, which contain much valuable information on pre-Columbian Maya civilization, and his actions which destroyed much of that civilization's...
sometime around 1566. De Landa had been one of those charged with disseminating the Roman Catholic faith amongst the Maya peoples
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
in Spain's new Central American possessions in the period following the Spanish conquest of Yucatán
Spanish conquest of Yucatán
The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region...
, and had lived there for several years. His manuscript (Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán) had been written upon his enforced return to Spain, where he faced trial for illegally or improperly conducting an Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
(he was later absolved, returning to the New World as the appointed Bishop of Yucatán
Yucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
). In the manuscript de Landa had recorded much information about the Maya peoples and customs, based on his own observations and discussions with Mayan informants. Brasseur de Bourbourg's main interest in the document, however, was a section in which de Landa reproduced what he called "an alphabet" of the as-yet undeciphered Maya hieroglyphics, the writing system
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
of the ancient Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
. In this passage de Landa had annotated the Mayan symbols (or glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
s) which supposedly corresponded to the letters of the Spanish alphabet, as given to him by a Maya informant who he had quizzed. Brasseur de Bourbourg realised that this could prove to be the key to unlocking the secrets of the Maya script, and he announced this discovery when republishing the manuscript (in a bilingual Spanish-French edition) in late 1863 under the title, Relation des choses de Yucatán de Diego de Landa.
However, upon initial analysis by Brasseur de Bourbourg and others, the so-called "de Landa alphabet
De Landa alphabet
The de Landa alphabet is the correspondence of Spanish letters and glyphs written in the pre-Columbian Maya script, which the 16th century Bishop of Yucatán, Fray Diego de Landa recorded as part of his documentation of the Maya civilization during his tenure there...
" proved to be problematic and inconsistent, and these immediate attempts to use this alphabet as a kind of "Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...
" to read the glyphs failed. Nevertheless, Brasseur de Bourbourg's uncovering of this document and de Landa's alphabet would much later prove to be vital in the eventual decipherment of the Maya glyphs. Brasseur de Bourbourg's attempts, and those of others which followed, were misled insofar as they interpreted the signs alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
ically. When the signs were recognised to be mainly syllabic
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
, significant progress was made.
Publication of the Popol Vuh
In 1861 he published another significant work: a French translation of the Popol VuhPopol Vuh
Popol Vuh is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala's western highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community," "Book of Counsel," or more literally as "Book of the People."...
, a sacred book of the Quiché (K'iche') Maya people. He included a grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the K'iche' language
K'iche' language
The K’iche’ language is a part of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by many K'iche' people in the central highlands of Guatemala. With close to a million speakers , it is the second-most widely spoken language in the country after Spanish...
and an essay on Central American mythology
Maya mythology
Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Mayan tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles...
.
Speculations concerning Atlantis
Brasseur began to write about AtlantisAtlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
in Grammaire de la langue quichée (1862), in which he expressed his belief that the lost land described by Plato had existed with a high level of civilization before the rise of civilizations in Europe and Asia. He suggested that the origins of European and Persian words could be traced to indigenous languages of the Americas and that the ancient cultures of the New and Old Worlds had been in constant contact with one another.
In 1866, Monuments anciens du Mexique (Palenque, et autres ruines de l'ancienne civilisation du Mexique) was published with a text by Brasseur de Bourbourg accompanied by lavish illustrations by Jean-Frédéric Waldeck
Jean-Frédéric Waldeck
Jean-Frédéric Maximilien de Waldeck was a French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer.-Biography:...
. Although Waldeck's depictions of the ruins at Palenque were based on first-hand knowledge, his artistic reconstructions and embellishments implied a close relationship between Maya art and architecture and that of Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
Greece and Rome. This was subsequently demonstrated to be spurious, but not before Waldeck's artwork had inspired speculations about contact between New and Old World civilizations, specifically via the lost continent of Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
.
These speculations were reinforced by Brasseur de Bourboug's own references to Plato's descriptions of the culture and society of Atlantis, which Brasseur believed found expression in ancient Maya civilization, in his book Quatre Lettres sur le Méxique (1868). In this publication, Brasseur de Bourbourg drew extensive parallels between Maya and Egyptian pantheons and cosmologies, implying that they all had a common source on the lost continent of Atlantis. He developed these ideas further in Quatre lettres sur le Mexique (1868), which presents a history of Atlantis based on his interpretation of Maya myths. His writings inspired Augustus Le Plongeon
Augustus Le Plongeon
Augustus Le Plongeon was a photographer and antiquarian who studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Peninsula. While his writings contain many eccentric notions that were discredited by later researchers, Le Plongeon left a...
and also Ignatius L. Donnelly, whose book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World is a book published during 1882 by Minnesota populist politician Ignatius L. Donnelly, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during 1831...
contains numerous references to Brasseur de Bourbourg's scholarship. However, an academic wrote in 1875 that not a single contemporary scholar accepted Brasseur de Bourbourg's theories about Atlantis.
The combination of Brasseur de Bourbourg's interests in spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
and these speculations about connections between the ancient Maya and Atlantis laid the foundations for Mayanism
Mayanism
Mayanism is a non-codified eclectic collection of New Age beliefs, influenced in part by Pre-Columbian Maya mythology and some folk beliefs of the modern Maya peoples...
.
Identification of a Maya codex
In 1866, Brasseur de Bourbourg had an opportunity to examine an artefact in Madrid which was in the possession of a Spanish paleography professor named Juan de Tro y Ortolano, who had purchased it some six years earlier. This artefact was an old codexCodex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
, a book made from paper-bark in the form of a folded screen of continuous pages, several metres in length when extended. The codex contained numerous signs and drawings, which Brasseur de Bourbourg was readily able to identify as being Mayan in origin, having seen and studied many similar markings and glyphs whilst in Central America.
Tro y Ortolano gave him permission to publish the codex in a reproduction, and Brasseur de Bourbourg gave it the name Troano Codex in his honour. His identification of the codex was significant, as it was the only third such Maya codex
Maya codices
Maya codices are folding books stemming from the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, written in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark cloth, made from the inner bark of certain trees, the main being the wild fig tree or Amate . Paper, generally known by the Nahuatl word amatl, was named by...
to have been uncovered (the second, the Paris codex, had been discovered by the French scholar Léon de Rosny only a few years before). In particular, Brasseur de Bourbourg recognised its exceeding rarity, since de Landa's Relación, which he had earlier rediscovered, gave an account of how he had ordered the destruction of all such Maya codices he could find, and many volumes had been consigned to the flames.
In 1869–1870 Brasseur de Bourbourg published his analyses and interpretations of the content of the Troano codex in his work Manuscrit Troano, études sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas. He proposed some translations for the glyphs recorded in the codex, in part based on the associated pictures and in part on de Landa's alphabet, but his efforts were tentative and largely unsuccessful.
However, his translation would later inspire Augustus Le Plongeon
Augustus Le Plongeon
Augustus Le Plongeon was a photographer and antiquarian who studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Peninsula. While his writings contain many eccentric notions that were discredited by later researchers, Le Plongeon left a...
and thus lay the basis for the speculation on the lost continent of Mu
Mu (lost continent)
Mu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of...
. The Name Mu actually goes back to Brasseur de Bourbourg.
A few years later, another Maya codex came to light in the hands of another collector, which became known as the Cortesianus codex (in the belief that it had been in the possession of Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
). When Léon de Rosny examined it later, he determined that it was actually a part of the Troano codex, the two parts having been separated at some indeterminate point in the past. The two parts were later rejoined and collectively are known as the Madrid or Tro-Cortesianus codex; they remain on display in Madrid.
In 1871 Brasseur de Bourbourg published his Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, a compendium of literature and sources associated with Mesoamerican studies.
His last article, "Chronologie historique des Mexicains" (1872) refers to the Codex Chimalpopoca and identifies four periods of world cataclysms that began about 10,500 BC and were the result of shifts in the Earth's axis (a concept related to pole shift theory
Pole shift theory
The cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis suggests that there have been geologically rapid shifts in the relative positions of the modern-day geographic locations of the poles and the axis of rotation of the Earth, creating calamities such as floods and tectonic events.No form of the hypothesis is...
).
Death, assessment of accomplishments
He died at NiceNice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
at the beginning of 1874, at the age of 59.
His linguistic and archaeological fieldwork, as well as his diligent collection, discovery and republication of source materials, proved to be highly useful for subsequent Mesoamerican researchers and scholars. The interpretations and theories he advanced mostly proved to be inaccurate.
List of publications
A listing of his publications (either original works or reproductions of historical documents), by original publication date. The place of publication is annotated (in brackets), and the shorter or common name of the publication is bolded. The list is not necessarily complete.- 1837 - Le MondeLe MondeLe Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
Journal (Paris), various articles and essays; - 1839 - Le Sérapéon, épisode de l'histoire du IVe siècle (Paris), a novel;
- 1839 - La dernière vestale (Paris), a novel;
- 1843 - Jérusalem, tableau de l'histoire et des vicissitudes de cette ville célèbre depuis son origine la plus reculée jusqu'à nos jours (Lille, France. Published under the pseudonym Étienne de Ravensberg);
- 1846 - Esquisse biographique sur Mgr de Laval, premier évêque de Québec (Québec);
- 1851 - (las) Cartas para servir de Introducción á la Historia primitiva de las Naciones civilizadas de la América setentrional... (Mexico), Spanish & French translations;
- 1852 - Histoire du Canada, de son Église et de ses missions depuis la découverte de l'Amérique jusqu'à nos jours, écrite sur des documents inédits compulsés dans les archives de l'archevêché et de la ville de Québec, etc. (2 vols., Paris);
- 1853 - Le khalife de Bagdad (Paris), a novel;
- 1853 - Histoire du Patrimoine de Saint-Pierre depuis les Temps apostoliques jusqu'à nos jours (Plancy, Paris, Arras, Amiens);
- 1857—59 - Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale, durant les siècles antérieurs à Christophe Colomb ... (4 vols., Paris);
- 1861 - Voyage sur l'Isthme de Tehuantepec dans l'état de Chiapas et la République de Guatémala, 1859 et 1860 (Paris);
- 1861 - Popol Vuh, le Livre sacré des Quichés, &c. (Paris);
- 1862 - Grammaire Quichée et le drame de Rabinal Achí (Paris);
- 1862 - Sommaire des voyages scientifiques et des travaux de géographie, d'histoire, d’archéologie et de philologie américaines (Saint-Cloud, France);
- 1864 - Relation des choses du Yucatán de Diego de Landa (Paris), reproduction and translation of de Landa's work;
- 1866 - Monuments anciens du Mexique (Palenque, et autres ruines de l'ancienne civilisation du Mexique) (Paris);
- 1868 - Quatre Lettres sur le Mexique (Paris)
- 1869—70 - Manuscrit Troano, étude sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas (2 vols., Paris);
- 1871 - Bibliothèque Mexico-guatémalienne (Paris)
A collection of travel accounts and reports which Brasseur de Bourbourg sent to the French Minister for Education and Religion from Mexico, Guatemala and Spain is stored at the Archives Nationales (Paris), F17, 2942.