Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
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Abbé ''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...
Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (8 September 1814 – 8 January 1874) was a noted French writer,
ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
, historian,
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, and
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
priest. He became a specialist in
Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
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 His writings, publications, and recovery of historical documents contributed much to knowledge of the region's languages, writing, history and culture, particularly those of the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 may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
and
Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
civilizations. However, his speculations concerning relationships between the ancient Maya and the lost continent of
Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
inspired
Ignatius L. Donnelly Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was an American Congressman, populist writer, and fringe scientist. He is known primarily now for his fringe theories concerning Atlantis, Catastrophism (especially the idea of an a ...
and encouraged the pseudo-science of
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. Contemporary Mayanism places less emphasis on contacts between the ancient ...
.


Early life and writings

He was born in
Bourbourg Bourbourg (; ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is situated in the maritime plain of northern France, in the middle of a triangle formed by Dunkirk, Calais, and Saint-Omer. Population In 1945 Bourbourg absorbed the for ...
, a small town with many
Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
influences near
Dunkirk, France Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France.
, as the
First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...
was ending. As a youth he went to
Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
in newly independent Belgium to study theology and philosophy. He became interested in writing during his studies there. Enthusiastic about Flanders' history, he wrote several essays about local folklore, which enabled him to enter literary circles. In 1837 aged 23, Brasseur traveled to Paris with supported by French poet Alphonse-Marie-Louis de Prat Lamartine's, and became involved with political newspapers that sought the democratization of power such as ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
.''Urkidi, Nadia Prévost. "Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Etienne." In Davíd Carrasco (ed).
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures
'. : Oxford University Press, 2001.
During this time, he began contributing essays to a Parisian journal. He wrote several historical accounts (using a pseudonym), including one concerning
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. He published several novels of Romantic style which was then very much in vogue. One of these, ''Le Sérapéon'', received reviews which implied it had a very close resemblance to
François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who had a notable influence on French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocrati ...
's 1809 novel ''
Les Martyrs ''Les martyrs'' (''The Martyrs'') is a four-act grand opera by Gaetano Donizetti set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe. The libretto was based on one written by Salvadore Cammarano for an original Italian version known as ''Poliuto'', which w ...
''. Such near-allegations of plagiarism and inaccuracies in his works were to be made several times during 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 Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
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
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Abbé Charles-Félix Cazeau, to have Brasseur de Bourbourg assigned to a job in the
seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
there. Correspondence began in late 1844, with Abbé Gingras claiming 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 job in Quebec was approved by the
Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
,
Joseph Signay Joseph Signay, (8 November 1778 – 3 October 1850), 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 appoin ...
, and in the autumn of 1845 he left Europe for the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
colony of the
Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British North America, British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham ...
, stopping briefly in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
along the way. Upon his arrival in
Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
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
archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
of Quebec, and in particular of its 17th-century founder,
François de Laval Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, commonly referred to as François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), was a French prelate of the Catholic Church. Consecrated a bishop in 1658, he led the Apostolic Vicariate of New France from 1658 to ...
, the first
Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec The Archdiocese of Québec ( la, Archidiœcesis Quebecensis; french: Archidiocèse de Québec) is a Catholic archdiocese in Quebec, Canada. Being the first see in the New World north of Mexico, the Archdiocese of Québec is also the primatial s ...
(after whom the seminary's later incarnation as a University, the
Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montmo ...
, 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 in that year, returning to Boston where he found a job with the diocese of Boston. The then current bishop,
John Bernard Fitzpatrick John Bernard Fitzpatrick (November 1, 1812 – February 13, 1866) was an American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Boston from 1846 until his death in 1866. Early life and education Fitzpatrick was born in Boston, Ma ...
, 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—travel to Central America.


Travels and expeditions to Central America

From 1848 to 1863 he travelled extensively as a
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
in many parts of
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
and Central America. During these journeys he gave great attention to
Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
n antiquities and became well-versed in the then-current theories and knowledge about the history of the region and the
Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
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 during 1857–1859 a history of the
Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
civilization, containing what was then known or speculated about the former kingdom, which had been conquered some three hundred years previously by the Spanish
conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
es in alliance with local enemies of the Aztecs. He also conducted research into the local languages and their transliteration into the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
. Between 1861 and 1864 he edited and published a collection of documents in the indigenous languages. In 1864 he was
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
of 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 while searching through archives at the Royal Academy of History in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
for
New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
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 Calderón, O.F.M. (12 November 1524 – 29 April 1579) was a Spanish Franciscan bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán. Many historians criticize his campaign against idolatry. In particular, he burned almost al ...
sometime around 1566. De Landa had been one of those charged with disseminating the
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
faith amongst the
Maya peoples The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people ...
in Spain's new Central American possessions during the period after the
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 in the Yucatán Peninsula, a vast limestone plain covering south-eastern Mexico, northern Gu ...
, 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 was charged with illegally or improperly conducting an
Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
(he was later absolved, returning to the New World as the appointed Bishop of
Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the political divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. I ...
). 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 termed "an alphabet" of the as-yet undeciphered
Maya hieroglyphics Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which ...
, the
writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
of the ancient
Maya civilization The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, archit ...
. In this passage de Landa had annotated the Mayan symbols (or
glyph A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...
s) which supposedly corresponded to the letters of the
Spanish alphabet Spanish orthography is the orthography used in the Spanish language. The alphabet uses the Latin script. The spelling is fairly phonemic, especially in comparison to more opaque orthographies like English, having a relatively consistent mapping ...
, as given to him by a Maya informant who he had quizzed. Brasseur de Bourbourg realised that this could prove to be basis of deciphering the Maya script, and he announced this discovery when republishing the manuscript (in a bilingual Spanish-French edition) in late 1863 with 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 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, Diego de Landa, recorded as part of his documentation of the Maya civilization. Despi ...
" proved to be problematic and inconsistent, and these immediate attempts to use this alphabet as a kind of "
Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...
" 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 An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...
ically. When the signs were recognised to be mainly
syllabic Syllabic may refer to: *Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words **Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable *Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables *Abugida, writing system ...
, significant progress was made.


Publication of the Popol Vuh

In 1861 he published another significant work: a French translation of the
Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Q ...
, a sacred book of the Quiché (K'iche') Maya people. He included a
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
of the
K'iche' language K'iche', K'ichee', or Quiché may refer to: *K'iche' people of Guatemala, a subgroup of the Maya *K'iche' language, a Maya language spoken by the K'iche' people **Classical K'iche' language, the 16th century form of the K'iche' language *Kʼicheʼ ...
and an essay on Central American
mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
.


Speculations concerning Atlantis

Brasseur began to write about
Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
in his publication ''Grammaire de la langue quichée'' (1862), in which he expressed his belief that the lost land described by Plato had existed with an advanced degree of civilization before the beginning 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 communication 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 Maximilien de Waldeck (March 16, 1766? – April 30, 1875) was a French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer. He was a man of talent and accomplishment, but his love of self-promotion and refusal to let the truth get in th ...
. 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 (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
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 ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
. 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 was continued by ancient Maya civilization, in his book ''Quatre Lettres sur le Méxique'' (1868). In this publication, Brasseur de Bourbourg made 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 his publication ''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 Henry Julian Le Plongeon (4 May 1825 – 13 December 1908) was a British-American archeologist and photographer who studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Penins ...
and also
Ignatius L. Donnelly Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was an American Congressman, populist writer, and fringe scientist. He is known primarily now for his fringe theories concerning Atlantis, Catastrophism (especially the idea of an a ...
, 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 Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...
and these speculations about relations between the ancient Maya and Atlantis provided the basis for
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. Contemporary Mayanism places less emphasis on contacts between the ancient ...
.


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 Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
professor named Juan de Tro y Ortolano, who had purchased it some six years earlier. This artefact was an old
codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
, 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 while 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 (singular ''codex'') are folding books written by the Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphics, Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican Amate, bark paper. The folding books are the products of profess ...
to have been uncovered (the second, the Codex Paris, had been discovered by the French scholar
Léon de Rosny Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...
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 burned. During 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 Henry Julian Le Plongeon (4 May 1825 – 13 December 1908) was a British-American archeologist and photographer who studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Penins ...
's pseudo-science and speculation about the lost continent of Mu. The name ''Mu'' was actually used first by Brasseur de Bourbourg. A few years later, another Maya codex was found possessed by another collector, which became known as the ''Codex Cortesianus'' (in the belief that it had been in the possession of
Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
). 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 time in the past. The two parts were later rejoined and are known collectively as the Codex ''Madrid'' or ''Tro-Cortesianus''; they remain displayed 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 ''Codex Chimalpopoca'' or ''Códice Chimalpopoca'' is a postconquest cartographic Aztec codex which is officially listed as being in the collection of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia located in Mexico City under "Collección Ant ...
and identifies four periods of world cataclysms that began about 10,500 BC and were the result of shifts of the Earth's axis (a concept related to pole shift theory).


Death and legacy

He died at
Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
at the beginning of 1874, at the age of 59. His archaeological fieldwork, as well as his diligent collection, discovery and republication of source materials, proved to be very useful for subsequent Mesoamerican researchers and scholars. The interpretations and theories he advanced proved to be mostly 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 Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' 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.


References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brasseur De Bourbourg, Charles Etienne 1814 births 1874 deaths People from Nord (French department) Mayanists Aztec scholars French Mesoamericanists 19th-century French novelists Writers from Hauts-de-France 19th-century archaeologists 19th-century Mesoamericanists Historians of Mesoamerica French male novelists 19th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers Pseudohistorians