Scrapbook, assembled by Daniel Garrison Brinton, of notes, manuscripts, clippings, line drawings and hand-drawn maps of C. Hermann Berendt, on a variety of topics pertaining to Central America. Also included is an unfinished draft letter from Berendt to an unidentified addressee, reporting on his ethnological and linguistic research on the Indians of Nicaragua (1874?; f. 21r); and a letter from George Williamson, then Minister Resident of the United States in Guatemala, to Berendt, dated 15 November 1874 (f. 24r). The volume has a table of contents listing 18 headings (f. i recto). The following handwritten materials of Berendt are included: Bibliography to Central America (f. 1r); a description of the land, industry, fauna and flora, and population of Verapaz department, Guatemala (Descripcion de Vera Paz; f. 4); notes on a conversation, entitled Isthmus Tehuantepec (second folio numbered 15); texts on Indian dance and drama, or festival (f. 36r), including the Mangue or Chorotega Indians of Nicaragua (Representaciones escenicas; Festspiele im Chorotega Gebiet; Bailes de Masaya), the Kekchi Indians of Cobán, and the Quiché Indians (Sakikoxol ò baile de Cortes), of Guatemala. Other sets of notes are headed: Archäologische Funde in Yucatan (f. 17r); Antiquities of Nicaragua: an Indian flute (f. 21v-22r); List of Nicaraguan antiquities (f. 23r); and Native words from Oviedo, with vocabularies labeled as Nicaragua (compared with Nahuatl), Cueva and Chorotega languages (f. 37r). Numerous maps, plans,and drawings pertain to various ruins in Mexico and Guatemala (see Note on decoration); objects depicted in drawings are sometimes noted to be from the collection of Berendt himself (f. 25r), or of Earl Flint (f. 25v, 26r), or Schiffmann (f. 26v, 27r). The following Spanish-language clippings are also included: an anecdote involving the Tzotzil Indians of Chamula, in Chiapas, Mexico, dated 1869 (f. 16r); a description of the locale and ruins of Palenque, Chiapas, dated 1872 (f. 34v-35r); and pages from La Sociedad económica, Guatemala, 1873 (f. 38r), with an article about the Guatemala National Museum and its ethnographic department, as well as a series of articles on the Lacandon Indians (El pais de los lacandones), and the Popol vuh (El libro sagrado), holy book of the Quiche Indians, as well as a serialized version of Pedro de Alvarado's account of the conquest of Guatemala (Informacion hecha por orden de Hernan Cortés).
Spanish; Castilian; English; German; Central American Indian languages
Provenance:
From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on title page of a related scrapbook, Ms. Coll. 700, Item 179).
41 leaves : paper; 391-394 x 255-258 mm bound to 402 x 286 mm
Personal Name:
Williamson, George.; Flint, Earl.; Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899, former owner.
Rights:
http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?
Notes:
Ms. codex.; Origin: Written or collected between approximately 1862 (clipping, f. 16) and 1876 (notes on verso of sheet used to mount drawings, f. 19r).; Title from cover.; Item 180 is the second of three large scrapbooks (Items 179-181) compiled by Daniel Garrison Brinton from miscellaneous loose notes and materials of C. Hermann Berendt (Brinton, p. 32); the other two scrapbooks are entitled: Miscellanea maya (Item 179), and Miscelleanea historica et linguistica (Item 181).; Foliation: Paper, 41; ii + 41, with a total of approximately 130 leaves tipped onto the scrapbook folios, and many blank scrapbook folios at back; [i, ii], 1-15, 15-38; contemporary foliation in pencil, upper right recto. Numerous partial leaves are tipped in; and a total of 16 leaves are laid in (preceding f. 13, 23, 36). Five folios (f. ii, 18, 20, 28, 36) are blank on both recto and verso.; Condition: Scrapbook folios brown around margins; some inserted material especially fragile (leaves with tears, f. 5v-6r; tracing paper, f. 16v).; Decoration: handdrawn maps and plans related to the Tabasco region of Mexico and the ruins at Centla (f. 5r-7r, 12v-13r); drawings in pencil or ink of objects and monuments from the ruins at Centla (10v-11r, 12r) and at Quiriguá, Guatemala (f. 16v). Other drawings are labeled as or identifiable as follows: Guatemalan antiquities (some colored red; f. 18v); figures or statues, including a Mayan Chac Mool figure (f. 19r); prehistoric flute (f. 22r); shoe-shaped vessels of Guatemala and of Ometepec, Mexico (f. 24v-25v, 29r); Nicaraguan pottery (f. 26v-27r); sculpted figure, Vera Paz (f. 27v); pottery designs of Ometepec, in black, red, brown, and yellow (f. 29v-31); and rock inscriptions of Nicaragua (f. 33r). Also included are drawings by Earl Flint of sculptured stones in the city of Acoyapa, Chontales, Nicaragua (f. 32v).; Binding:19th-century half leather (Label: Shipman's Patent Invoice & Scrap Book, patented June 13, 1871).; Script: Notes, maps and drawings in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt; a letter in the hand of George Williamson (f. 24r); and drawings in the hand of Earl Flint (f. 32v).; Spanish, English, and German, with one set of vocabularies (f. 37r) including Cueva and Mangue (Chorotega) words.
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