Description
Book SynopsisIn two decades of traveling throughout Mexico, Central America, and Europe, French priest Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814-1874) amassed hundreds of indigenous manuscripts and printed books. In
The Manuscript Hunter, translator Katia Sainson reasserts Brasseur de Bourbourg’s standing as the founder of modern Maya studies.
Trade ReviewThese writings by Brasseur de Bourbourg are something of a revelation - well written, surprisingly insightful for his time, and eminently readable, with refreshing detail and good humor. There are passages of brilliance when the abbé focuses on local Maya customs and ritual practices, which he presents with a surprising degree of respect for Maya culture that often falls on the side of advocacy.""
- Allen J. Christenson, author of
Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community: The Altarpiece of Santiago Atitlán""This is an engaging narrative, written by a storyteller whose language forms vivid and striking mental images describing his travels throughout Central America. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the content of Brasseur de Bourbourg's many discoveries and contributions to our modern understanding of the pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican world. Delightfully written and beautifully translated,
The Manuscript Hunter opens a window on the nature of an interesting, capable, and sincere man."" - John S. Robertson, coauthor of
Colonial Ch'olti': The Seventeenth-Century Morán Manuscript""This is an engaging narrative, written by a storyteller whose language forms vivid and striking mental images describing his travels throughout Central America. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the content of Brasseur de Bourbourg's many discoveries and contributions to our modern understanding of the pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican world. Delightfully written and beautifully translated,
The Manuscript Hunter opens a window on the nature of an interesting, capable, and sincere man."" - John S. Robertson, coauthor of
Colonial Ch'olti': The Seventeenth-Century Morán Manuscript
