Diego de Landa

Diego de Landa Calderón (1524 - 1579) was Bishop of the Yucatán. De Landa was in charge of bringing the Roman Catholic faith to the Maya people after the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. He left future generations with a mixed legacy in his writings which contain much valuable information on pre-Columbian Maya civilization, and his actions which destroyed much of that civilization's history, literature, and traditions.

Related Topics:
1524 - 1579 - Bishop - Yucatán - Roman Catholic - Maya people - Spanish conquest of Yucatán - Pre-Columbian - Maya civilization

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He is the author of the Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán in which he catalogues the Maya language, religion, culture and writing system. This manuscript was written around 1566 on his return to Spain; however, the original copies have long since been lost. The account is known to us only as an abridgement, which in turn had undergone several iterations by various copyists. The extant version was produced around 1660, and was discovered by the 19th century French cleric Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1862. Brasseur de Bourbourg published the manuscript two years later in a bilingual French-Spanish edition, entitled Relation des choses de Yucatán de Diego de Landa.

Related Topics:
Maya language - 1566 - 19th century - French - Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg - 1862

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After hearing of Roman Catholic Mayans who continued to practice Idol worship, he ordered an Inquisition in Mani ending with a ceremony called auto de fe. During the ceremony on July 12, 1562, a disputed number of Mayan books (de Landa admits to 27, other sources claim "99 times as many") and approximately 5,000 Mayan idols were burned.

Related Topics:
Roman Catholic - Idol - Inquisition - Mani - Auto de fe - July 12 - 1562

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Describing his own actions later, de Landa wrote that:

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• We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they (the Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction.

Only three Pre-Columbian "books" of Maya hieroglyphics (a.k.a. a codex) and fragments of a fourth are known to have survived. Collectively, these works are known as the Maya codices.

Related Topics:
Maya hieroglyphics - Codex - Maya codices

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De Landa was sent back to Spain by Bishop Toral, to stand trial for conducting an illegal Inquisition. His actions were strongly condemned before the Council of the Indies. This resulted in a "committee of doctors" being commissioned to investigate de Landa's alleged crimes. In 1569 the committee absolved de Landa of his crimes. Bishop Toral died in Mexico in 1571, allowing King Phillip II of Spain to appoint de Landa as the fourth-appointed Bishop of the Yucatán.

Related Topics:
Spain - 1569 - Phillip II of Spain

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Landa also created a valuable record of the Mayan writing system, which although inaccurate was used in the decipherment of the writing system at the end of the 20th century. Landa asked a Maya for the symbol for each of the letters of the alphabet, in the belief that there would be a one-to-one correspondence between the Spanish alphabet and the Mayan glyphs. He carefully recorded the replies although he didn't understand them. His table of the 'Mayan alphabet' is essentially correct, later proving not to be a transcription of an alphabet, but rather a syllabary. This was only confirmed much later through the subsequent work of Yuri Knorosov in the 1950s, and succeeding Maya scholars.

Related Topics:
Writing system - Decipherment - 20th century - Alphabet - Syllabary - Yuri Knorosov - 1950s

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His initial appointment was to the mission of San Antonio in Izamal, which served also as his primary residence while in the Yucatán.

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[[Category:Mayanists|Landa, Diego de

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