The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in his Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatemalienne (Leclerc, nos. 81, 1,084), has given for Central America a very excellent list of the works on the linguistics of the natives, which are all contained also in the Catalogue of the Pinart-Brasseur sale, which took place in Paris in January and February, 1884. Cf. the paper on Brasseur by Dr. Brinton, in Lippincott’s Magazine, vol. i.; and the enumeration of his numerous writings in Sabin’s Dictionary, ii. 7,420; also Leclerc, Field, and Bancroft.
Dr. Félix C. Y. Sobron’s Los Idiomas de la America Latina,—Estudios Biografico-bibliograficos, published a few years since at Madrid, gives, according to Dr. Brinton, extended notices of several rare volumes; but on the whole the book is neither exhaustive nor very accurate.
Julius Platzmann’s Verzeichniss einer Auswahl Amerikanischer Grammatiken, etc. (Leipsic, 1876), is a small but excellent list, with proper notes. These bibliographies will show the now numerous works upon the aboriginal tongues, their construction and their fruits.
There are several important series interesting to the student, which are found in the catalogues. Such are the Bibliothèque linguistique Américaine, published in seven volumes by Maisonneuve in Paris (Leclerc, no. 2,674); the Coleccion de linguistica y etnografía Americanas, or Bibliothèque de linguistique et d’Ethnographie Américaines, 1875, etc., edited by A. L. Pinart; the Library of American Linguistics, in thirteen volumes, edited by Dr. John G. Shea (Cf. Brinley Catalogue, vol. iii. no. 5,631; Field, no. 1,396); Brinton’s Library of Aboriginal American Literature, published by Dr. D. G. Brinton in Philadelphia; and Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Collection de documents dans les langues indigènes, Paris, 1861-1864, in four volumes (cf. Field, p. 175).
The earliest work printed exclusively in a native language was the Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana en lengua Timuiquana, published at Mexico in 1617 (cf. Sabin, vol. xiv. no. 58,580; Finotti, p. 14). This is the statement often made; but Mr. Pilling refers me to references in Icazbalceta’s Zumárraga (vol. 1. p. 200) to an earlier edition of about 1547; and in the same author’s Bibliografia Mexicana (p. 32), to one of 1553. Molina’s Vocabulario de la lengua Castellana y Mexicana, placing the Nahuatl and Castilian in connection, was printed at Mexico in 1555. The book is very rare, five or six copies only being known; and Quaritch has priced an imperfect copy at £72 (Quaritch, Bibliog. Géog. linguistica, 1879, no. 12,616; Carter-Brown, vol. i. no. 206; Brinley Catalogue, vol. iii. no, 5,771). The edition of 1571 is also rare (Pinart-Brasseur Catalogue, no. 630; Carter-Brown, vol. i. nos. 285, 286; Quaritch, 1879, no. 12,617). The first edition of Molina’s Aztec grammar, Arte de la lengua Mexicana y Castellana, was published the same year (1571). Quaritch (1879, no. 12,615) prices this at £52 10s. Cf. also Carter-Brown, vol. i. no. 284. One of the chief of the more recent studies of the linguistics of Mexico is Francisco Pimentel’s Cuadro descriptivo y comparativo de las lenguas indigenas de México, Mexico, 1862-1865; and second edition in 1874-1875.
This subject has other treatment later in the present volume.
[55] It included two thousand and thirty-four items, ninety-four of which were Mr. Squier’s own works.
[56] Vol. II. p. 578.
[57] He says that up to 1881 he had gathered 35,000 volumes, at a cost of $300,000, exclusive of time and travelling expenses. His manuscripts embraced 1,200 volumes. The annual growth of his library is still 1,000 volumes.
[58] One twelfth of the earth’s surface, as he says.