Ludovico Bertonio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludovico Bertonio (born 1552 at Rocca Contrada near Ancona; died at Lima, Peru, 3 August 1625) was an Italian Jesuit missionary to South America.

[edit] Life

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1575. Sent to Peru six years later, he worked principally among the Aymara of southern Peru and of Bolivia.

[edit] Work

He wrote on the Aymara language. His earliest publications appeared under the title Arte breve de la lengua aymara para introducir el Arte grande de la misma lengua (Rome, 1603), also Arte y gramatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara etc.

The printing press having been introduced and established by the Jesuits at the Indian mission of Juli in southwestern Peru, Bertonio had the following works printed there, all in the year 1612:

  • Arte de la lengua aymara con una selva de frases en la misma lengua y su declaracion en romance Vocabulario de la lengua aymara (first and second part)
  • Confesionario muy copioso en dos lenguas, aymara y espanola (etc.)
  • Libro de la vida y milagros de Ntro Senor Jesuchristo en dos lenguas, aymara y romance, traducido del que recopilo el Liocenciado Alonso de Villegas (etc.)

The publications by Bertonio are rare. Julius Platzmann published in facsimile the Arte y grammatica of 1603 and the Vocabularies. The Peruvian historian Clemente Markham claimed that Bertonio invented the name "Aymara"; the Bolivian geographer Manuel Vicente Ballivian rejected this in a pamphlet.

[edit] References

  • Torres Saldamando, Los antiguos Jesuitas del Peru (Lima, 1882);
  • Mendiburu, Diccionario (Lima, 1876), II:
  • Ballivian, Boletin de la Sociedad geografica de la Paz.

This article incorporates text from the entry Ludovico Bertonio in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

Languages