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{{Short description|French ethnographer, historian, and priest (1814–1874)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name         = Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
| image        = Brasseur de Bourbourg.jpeg
| alt          = Abbé Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg. Lithograph from J. Windsor's 19th-century publication, Aboriginal America.
| caption      = Abbé Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg. Lithograph from J. Windsor's 19th-century publication, ''Aboriginal America''.
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1814|9|8}}
| birth_place   = [[Bourbourg]], France
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1874|1|8|1814|9|8}}
| death_place   = [[Nice]], France
| occupation   = Catholic priest; writer, [[ethnographer]], historian and  [[archaeology|archaeologist]].
| subject      = [[Mesoamerica]]n studies
}}
[[Abbé]] '''Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg''' (8 September 1814 &ndash; 8 January 1874) was a noted French writer, [[ethnographer]], historian, [[archaeology|archaeologist]], and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] priest. He became a specialist in [[Mesoamerica]]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His writings, publications, and recovery of historical documents contributed much to knowledge of the region's languages, writing, history and culture, particularly those of the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] and [[Aztec]] civilizations. However, his speculations concerning relationships between the ancient Maya and the lost continent of [[Atlantis]] inspired [[Ignatius L. Donnelly]] and encouraged the pseudo-science of [[Mayanism]].
== Early life and writings ==
He was born in [[Bourbourg]], a small town with many [[Flemings|Flemish]] influences near [[Dunkirk, France]], as the [[First French Empire]] was ending.
As a youth he went to [[Ghent]] 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 {{lang|fr|[[Le Monde]]}}.<ref>Urkidi, Nadia Prévost. "Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Etienne." In [[David Carrasco|Davíd Carrasco]] (ed).''[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195108156.001.0001/acref-9780195108156 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures]''. : Oxford University Press, 2001.  {{ISBN|9780195108156|9780195188431}}</ref> During this time, he began contributing essays to a Parisian journal.  He wrote several historical accounts (using a pseudonym), including one concerning [[Jerusalem]]. He published several novels of [[Romanticism|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]]'s 1809 novel ''[[Les Martyrs]]''. 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]] 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]], Abbé Charles-Félix Cazeau, to have Brasseur de Bourbourg assigned to a job in the [[seminary]] 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]], [[Joseph Signay]], and in the autumn of 1845 he left Europe for the [[British Empire|British]] colony of the [[Province of Canada]], stopping briefly in [[Boston]] along the way.
Upon his arrival in [[Quebec City]] 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]] of Quebec, and in particular of its 17th-century founder, [[François de Laval]], the first [[Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec]] (after whom the seminary's later incarnation as a University, the [[Université Laval]], 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 [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston|diocese of Boston]]. The then current bishop, [[John Bernard Fitzpatrick]], 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 ==
[[Image:Histoire du Mexique (Brasseur de Bourbourg) cover.jpeg|180px|thumb|left|Coverpage of [[Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg|Brasseur de Bourbourg's]] original 1857 work, ''"Histoire du Mexique"''.]]
From 1848 to 1863 he travelled extensively as a [[missionary]] in many parts of [[Mexico]] and Central America.
During these journeys he gave great attention to [[Mesoamerica]]n antiquities and became well-versed in the then-current theories and knowledge about the history of the region and the [[Pre-Columbian]] 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]] 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]]es in alliance with local enemies of the Aztecs.
He also conducted research into the local languages and their transliteration into the [[Latin alphabet]]. Between 1861 and 1864 he edited and published a collection of documents in the indigenous languages.
In 1864 he was [[archaeologist]] of the French military expedition in Mexico, and his resulting work ''Monuments anciens du Mexique'' was published by the French Government in 1866.
[[Image:De Landa alphabet.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Page from Brasseur de Bourbourg's edition of [[Diego de Landa|de Landa]]'s ''Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán'', with the famous [[de Landa alphabet]].]]
== Discovery of de Landa's work ==
In 1862 while searching through archives at the Royal Academy of History in [[Madrid]] for [[New World]] materials, he came across an abridged copy of a manuscript which had originally been written by the Spanish cleric [[Diego de Landa]] sometime around 1566. De Landa had been one of those charged with disseminating the [[Roman Catholic]] faith amongst the [[Maya peoples]] in Spain's new Central American possessions during the period after the [[Spanish conquest of Yucatán]], 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]] (he was later absolved, returning to the New World as the appointed Bishop of [[Yucatán (state)|Yucatán]]). 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]], the [[writing system]] of the ancient [[Maya civilization]]. In this passage de Landa had annotated the Mayan symbols (or [[glyph]]s) which supposedly corresponded to the letters of the [[Spanish alphabet]], 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]]" proved to be problematic and inconsistent, and these immediate attempts to use this alphabet as a kind of "[[Rosetta Stone]]" 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]]ically. When the signs were recognised to be mainly [[syllabary|syllabic]], significant progress was made.
== Publication of the Popol Vuh ==
In 1861 he published another significant work: a French translation of the [[Popol Vuh]], a sacred book of the [[Kʼicheʼ people|Quiché (Kʼicheʼ) Maya people]]. He included a [[grammar]] of the [[Kʼicheʼ language]] and an essay on Central American [[Maya mythology|mythology]].
== Speculations concerning Atlantis ==
Brasseur began to write about [[Atlantis]] 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]]. 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]] 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]].
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]] and also [[Ignatius L. Donnelly]], 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 (movement)|spiritualism]] and these speculations about relations between the ancient Maya and Atlantis provided the basis for [[Mayanism]].
== 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]] professor named Juan de Tro y Ortolano, who had purchased it some six years earlier. This artefact was an old [[codex]], 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 codices|Maya codex]] to have been uncovered (the second, the [[Paris Codex|Codex Paris]], had been discovered by the French scholar [[Léon de Rosny]] 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]]'s pseudo-science and speculation about the [[Mu (lost continent)|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]]). 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 [[Madrid Codex (Maya)|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]] 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]] 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 - {{lang|fr|[[Le Monde]]}} 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 ==
{{Reflist}}
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Bandelier, Adolph F.   |author-link=Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier|year=1907 |title=Charles Etienne, Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg |encyclopedia=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]] |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02743a.htm |edition=New Advent online reproduction |others=Joseph E. O'Connor (transcription)|volume=II |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton and Company |access-date=2005-07-21}}
* {{cite book |author=Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Étienne   |year=1861 |title=Popol Vuh. Le livre sacré et les mythes de l'antiquité américaine, avec les livres héroïques et historiques des Quichés. Ouvrage original des indigénes de Guatémala, texte quiché et traduction française en regard, accompagnée de notes philologiques et d'un commentaire sur la mythologie et les migrations des peuples anciens de l'Amérique, etc. |series=Collection de documents dans les langues indigènes, pour servir à l’étude de l’histoire et de la philologie de l’Amérique ancienne, Vol. 1 |location=Paris |publisher=[[Arthus Bertrand]] |oclc=7457119}} {{in lang|fr|quc}}
* {{cite book |author=Ferrer Muñoz, Manuel   |year=2002 |chapter=Brasseur de Bourbourg ante las realidades indígenas de México |chapter-url=http://www.bibliojuridica.org/libros/1/252/12.pdf |chapter-format=[[PDF]] |editor=Manuel Ferrer Muñoz |title=La imagen del México decimonónico de los visitantes extranjeros: ¿un estado-nación o un mosaico plurinacional? |series=Serie Doctrina Jurídica, no. 56 |location=México D.F. |publisher=Instituto de Investigaciones de Jurídica, [[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]] |pages=261–286|isbn=968-36-9318-0 |oclc=50761138 |language=es}}
* {{cite book |author=Kettunen, Harri   |author2=Christophe Helmke |year=2005 |title=Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs |format=[[PDF]] online reproduction |publisher=Wayeb and Leiden University |url=http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/handbook/index.html |access-date=2005-07-19}}
* {{cite book |author=Mace, Carroll Edward   |year=1973 |chapter=Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1814-1874 |pages=298–325 |title=[[Handbook of Middle American Indians|Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 13: Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources, part II]] |editor=Howard F. Cline (Volume ed.), John B. Glass (Associate vol. ed.) |others=[[Robert Wauchope (archaeologist)|R. Wauchope]] (General editor) |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |location=Austin |isbn=0-292-70153-5 |oclc=163392725}}
* {{cite web|author=Martí, Beatriz |year=n.d. |title=Mayan Codices |work=History |publisher=Mundo Maya online |url=http://www.mayadiscovery.com/ing/history/default.htm |access-date=2005-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050801095757/http://www.mayadiscovery.com/ing/history/default.htm |archive-date=2005-08-01 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Sylvain, Philippe  |year=2000 |title=Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles-Étienne |url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4855 |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Canadian Biography|Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]] |editor=John English  |editor2=Réal Bélanger |location=Ottawa |publisher=[[Library and Archives Canada]], [[Université Laval]], and [[University of Toronto]] |volume=X, 1871&ndash;1880 |oclc=70528566 |access-date=2005-07-19}}
* {{cite book |author=Urkidi, Nadia Prévost |year=2001 |chapter=Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Etienne.|title= The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, Vol 1 |editor=Davíd Carrasco|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=New York |isbn=9780195188431|oclc=	1169898498}}
* {{cite book |author=Wauchope, Robert |author-link=Robert Wauchope (archaeologist) |year=1975 |orig-year=1962 |title=Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of the American Indians |edition=Fifth impression |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=0-226-87635-7 |oclc=50928664 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/losttribessunken0000wauc }}
{{refend}}
==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=5993| name=Brasseur de Bourbourg}}
* {{Internet Archive author|name=Brasseur de Bourbourg}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brasseur De Bourbourg, Charles Etienne}}
[[Category:1814 births]]
[[Category:1874 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Nord (French department)]]
[[Category:Mayanists]]
[[Category:Scholars of the Aztecs]]
[[Category:French Mesoamericanists]]
[[Category:19th-century French novelists]]
[[Category:Writers from Hauts-de-France]]
[[Category:19th-century French archaeologists]]
[[Category:19th-century Mesoamericanists]]
[[Category:Historians of Mesoamerica]]
[[Category:French male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Pseudohistorians]]