Relación de las cosas de Yucatán

The relacion de las cosas de Yucatán (Report on the things of Yucatán ) is a vindication of Diego de Landa, Bishop of Yucatán, against the 1566 because of attacks against the indigenous Mayan population, a process was hard. After the process, this document disappeared into the Royal Spanish archives and was only rediscovered in 1862 by Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg in Madrid.

Diego de Landa had to be burned all written in the Maya writing documents in missionary zeal. This document de Landa tried among other things, to reconstruct the Maya alphabet with the help of local informants, which he failed because he lacked any understanding of the writing system of the Maya. The traditional of him, so-called Landa alphabet subsequently led many researchers astray, but eventually played in the decipherment of Maya writing in the 1950s by Yuri Knorosow a crucial role.

Output

• Diego de Landa: Report from Yucatán. With an essay v. Linda Schele and Mary E. Miller. With Fig. ed. and afterword v. Carlos Rincon. Ditzingen: Reclam, 2007.