The Friar and the Maya: Diego de Landa and the Account of the Things of Yucatan [Paperback]

The Friar and the Mayaoffers a full study and new translation of theRelación de las Cosas de Yucatán(Account of the Things of Yucatan) by a unique set of eminent scholars, created by them over more than a decade from the original manuscript held by the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid. This critical and careful reading of theAccountis long overdue in Maya studies and will forever change how this seminal text is understood and used.
 
For generations, scholars used (and misused) theAccountas the sole eyewitness insight into an ancient civilization. It is credited to the sixteenth-century Spanish Franciscan, monastic inquisitor, and bishop Diego de Landa, whose legacy is complex and contested. His extensive writings on Maya culture and history were lost in the seventeenth century, save for the fragment that is theAccount, discovered in the nineteenth century, and accorded near-biblical status in the twentieth as the first “ethnography” of the Maya. However, theAccountis not authored by Landa alone; it is a compilation of excerpts, many from writings by other Spaniards—a significant revelation made here for the first time.
 
This new translation accurately reflects the style and vocabulary of the original manuscript. It is augmented by a monograph—comprising an introductory chapter, seven essays, and hundreds of notes—that describes, explains, and analyzes the life and times of Diego de Landa, theAccount, and the role it has played in the development of modern Maya studies.The Friar and the Mayais an innovative presentation on an important and previously misunderstood primary source.
 The Friar and the Mayaoffers a full study and new translation of theRelación de las Cosas de Yucatán(Account of the Things of Yucatan) by a unique set of eminent scholars, created by them over more than lx