Lengua de Suere / Girolamo Benzoni.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Benzoni, Girolamo, 1519-1572?

Contributor:

Berendt, C. Hermann (Carl Hermann), 1817-1878, former owner.

Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899, former owner.

Language:

Central American Indian (Other)

Spanish

Subjects (All):

Guetar language--Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.

Guetar language.

Indians of Central America--Costa Rica--Languages.

Indians of Central America.

Language and languages.

Costa Rica--Languages.

Costa Rica.

Genre:

glossaries

Manuscripts, Spanish.

Manuscripts, Latin American.

Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.

Controlled vocabularies.

Penn Provenance:

From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on the verso of front free endpaper in the bound volume that once contained the present item).

Physical Description:

2 leaves : paper ; 204 x 126 mm bound to 204 x 126 mm

Contained In:

Berendt-Brinton Linguistic Collection. Item 155

Other Title:

Suere, Huetares.

Place of Publication:

[between 1869 and 1878]

Language Note:

Spanish and Guetar (?).

Summary:

C. Hermann Berendt's transcription of 5 vocabulary words in an Indian language that he considered to be Guetar (Huetar), from Girolamo Benzoni's La historia del mondo nuovo: La qual tratta delle isole, et mari nuovamente ritrovati, et delle nuove città da lui proprio vedute, per acqua, et per terra in quattordeci anni (Heirs of G.M. Bonelli for P. & F. Tini, Venice, 1572; p. 79), along with notes by Berendt on the Guetar Indians and language. Benzoni identified the words as being spoken in what he called the province of Suere, apparently with reference to the region in the vicinity of the Suere (Suerre) River (today: Pacuare River), which begins in the Talamanca Mountains and flows into the Caribbean Sea. Whereas Benzoni's work was in Italian, Berendt lists the vocabulary in Spanish and Guetar; and in a third column (red ink) renders the Guetar word with an alternative orthography. The Spanish-Guetar entries are: tierra - ischa; hombres - cici; enfermedad - stasa; oro - chiarucla; un animal (danta?) - cascuij. Berendt notes a 6th vocabulary entry (grande, esplendido: matto), stating that Philipp J. J. Valentini told him it was to be found in the German translation of Benzoni's work. Berendt also makes reference to 3 words given by William Bollaert in his work Antiquarian, ethnological, and other researches in New Granada, Equador, Peru and Chili (London, 1860, p. 65; Berendt cites the date as 1866), identified by Bollaert as: from Suere near Panama; Berendt notes that two of the words are the same as those given by Benzoni (cici, chiarucla), and the third is similar (ischia), all with the same meanings as in Benzoni. In the accompanying notes (f. 2r), Berendt describes the Huateres (Guateres) as an extinct tribe of Costa Rica, noting that on a map by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, they are located on the Gulf of Nicoya. He briefly discusses allusions to the Huetares in current speech, in Cartago and on the coast of Limón; relates a suggestion by Valentini about a few geographic names that may have their source in the language; and comments on the possible location of the said province of Suere, with citation of a reference dated 1869.

Notes:

Title from caption title (f. 1r).

This was the nineteenth of 19 manuscripts formerly bound together, probably by Daniel Garrison Brinton, and now disbound (Items 129-136, 143, 145, 146, 151-155, and 157-159). The bound volume had the spine title: Languages of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Foliation: ii + 2 + i leaves. A small rectangle of paper with several lines of text is tipped in (f. 2r), partially obscuring text that was crossed out.

Script: Written in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt.

Binding: Contemporary paper covers; sewn.

Origin: Written sometime between 1869 and C. Hermann Berendt's death in 1878.

Cited in:

Described in Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Catalogue of the Berendt Linguistic Collection (Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 1900), p. 29 (no. 155).

Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 635 (no. 20).

Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 68-70 (no. 388, document 19).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 155

OCLC:

568045618