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Fletcher and Ellen R. Kintz have written that the account of Maya social organization and towns before conquest is a "gem". The writings are the main contemporary source for Maya history, without which the knowledge of Maya ethnology would be devastatingly small. Much more would now be known about Mayan history and culture if de Landa had not burned anywhere from 27 to what Mayan
Historian George Stuart speculates as "hundreds, maybe thousands of books. We will never know."
455:, from the same Toledo convent, was "monomaniacal in his fervor" against it. Landa believed a huge underground network of apostasies, led by displaced indigenous priests, were jealous of the power the Church enjoyed and sought to reclaim it for themselves. The apostates, Landa surmised, had launched a counteroffensive against the Church, and he believed it was his duty to expose the evil before it could revert the population to their old heathen ways.
322:, and the history of the American continent. Nonetheless, his work in documenting and researching the Maya was indispensable in achieving the current understanding of their culture, to the degree that one scholar asserted that "ninety-nine percent of what we today know of the Mayas, we know as the result either of what Landa has told us in the pages that follow, or have learned in the use and study of what he told".
371:, culture and writing system. The manuscript was written around 1566 on his return to Spain; however, the original copies have long since been lost. The account is known only as an abridgement, which in turn had undergone several iterations by various copyists. The extant version was produced around 1660, lost to scholarship for over two centuries and not rediscovered until the 19th century. In 1862, French cleric
538:
55:
442:". During hoisting, a victim's hands were bound and looped over an extended line that was then raised until the victim's entire body was suspended in the air. Often, stone weights were added to the ankles or lashes applied to the back during interrogation. During his later trial for his actions, Landa vehemently denied that any deaths or injuries directly resulted from these procedures.
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symbols corresponding to each of the letters of the (Spanish) alphabet, in the belief that there ought to be a one-to-one correspondence between them. The results were faithfully reproduced by Landa in his later account, but he recognised that the set contained apparent inconsistencies and duplicates
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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. That resulted in a "committee of doctors" being commissioned to investigate Landa's alleged crimes. In 1569, the committee absolved
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Landa was unique in that he was willing to go into recently conquered, where native resentment of
Spaniards was still very intense. Over the course of his journeys, Landa formulated an intimate contact with natives. Natives placed him in such an esteemed position they were willing to show him some of
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However, Lopez de
Cogolludo, Landa's chief Franciscan biographer, wrote of Landa's firsthand experiences with human sacrifices. When Landa first came to the Yucatán, he made it his mission to walk the breadth of the peninsula and preach to the most remote villages. While passing through Cupules, he
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is about as complete a treatment of Maya religion as is ever likely. While controversy surrounds his use of force in the conversion process, few scholars would debate the general accuracy of his recordings. Allen Wells calls his work an "ethnographic masterpiece", and
William J. Folan, Laraine A.
450:
Scholars have argued that
Mexican inquisitions showed little concern to eradicate magic or convict individuals for heterodox beliefs and that witchcraft was treated more as a religious problem capable of being resolved by confession and absolution. Landa, however, perhaps inspired by intolerant
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and other idolatrous practices while rooting out native idolatry. Although one of the alleged victims of said sacrifices, Mani
Encomendero Dasbatés, was later found to be alive, and Landa's enemies contested his right to run an inquisition, Landa insisted a
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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
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came upon a group of 300 about to sacrifice a young boy. Enraged, Landa stormed through the crowd, released the boy, smashed the idols and began preaching with such zeal and sincerity that they begged him to remain in the land and teach them more.
576:" was inaccurate or fanciful, and many subsequent attempts to use the transcription remained unconvincing. It was not until much later, in the mid-20th century, when it was realized and then confirmed that it was not a transcription of an
503:
Landa, like most other
Franciscans, subscribed to millenarian ideas, which demanded the mass conversion of as many souls as possible before the turn of the century. Eliminating evil and pagan practices, Landa believed, would usher the
752:
David E. Timmer, "Providence and
Perdition – Fray Diego de Landa Justifies His Inquisition against the Yucatecan Maya" (Cambridge University Press; American Society of Church History, Vol. 66, No. 3) September 1997; pp. 478, footnote
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their sacred writings that had been transcribed on deerskin books. To Landa and the other
Franciscan friars, the very existence of these Maya codices was proof of diabolical practices. In references to the books, Landa said:
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Landa's Inquisition involved the use of physical abuse on certain indigenous Maya. Scores of Maya nobles were jailed pending interrogation, and large numbers of Maya nobles and commoners were subjected to examination under
499:
Landa's insistence of widespread cults throughout the Yucatán is backed by ample evidence. Rituals the Spanish conquerors could not understand were labeled as idolatry, superstition, or even devil worship.
567:
of the writing system. Landa asked his informants (his primary sources were two Maya individuals descended from a ruling Maya dynasty who were literate in the script) to write down the
1326:
334:, Guadalajara, Spain, he became a Franciscan friar in 1541, and was sent as one of the first Franciscans to the Yucatán, arriving in 1549. Landa was in charge of bringing the
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by the Spanish crown, and he worked diligently to buttress the order's power and convert the indigenous Maya. His initial appointment was to the mission of San Antonio in
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Folan, William J.; Fletcher, Laraine A. & Kintz, Ellen R. (1979), "Fruit, Fiber, Bark, and Resin: Social Organization of a Maya Urban Center",
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Timmer, David E. (1997), "Providence and Perdition: Fray Diego de Landa Justifies His Inquisition against the Yucatecan Maya",
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Wells, Allen (1996), "Forgotten Chapters of Yucatán's Past: Nineteenth-Century Politics in Historiographical Perspective",
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in which Landa describes his Maya alphabet, which was to prove instrumental in the mid-20th-century breakthrough in
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Yucatan Before and After the Conquest by Friar Diego de Landa: with Other Related Documents, Maps and Illustrations
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Glyph Drawings from Landa's Relación: A Caveat to the Investigator by George Stuart, Center for Maya Research
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William Gates, Introduction to his translation of Diego De Landa, "Yucatan Before and After the Conquest"
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that he was unable to explain. Later researchers reviewing this material also formed the view that the "
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Don Diego Quijada, Alcalde Mayor de Yucatan, 1551–1565. Documentos sacados de los archivos de Espana
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Landa of his crimes. Bishop Toral died in Mexico in 1571, allowing King
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691:"13th century Maya codex, long shrouded in controversy, proves genuine"
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717:"New Analysis Shows Disputed Maya "Grolier Codex" Is the Real Deal"
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414:. During the ceremony on July 12, 1562, a disputed number of Maya
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Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (30 August 2018).
582:, as Landa and others had originally supposed, but was rather a
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published the manuscript in a bilingual French-Spanish edition,
346:. He presided over a spiritual monopoly granted to the Catholic
765:"Sex and Sin, Witchcraft and the Devil in Late-Colonial Mexico"
354:, which served also as his primary residence while in Yucatán.
912:(2nd ed.), New York: Cambridge University Press, p.
48:
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Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517–1570
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Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517–1570
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Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517–1570
418:(according to Landa, 27 books) and approximately 5,000 Maya
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An interpretation of Bishop Diego de Landa's Maya alphabet
291:(12 November 1524 – 29 April 1579) was a Spanish
27:
16th-century Spanish Catholic bishop in colonial Mexico
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Mesoweb.com: Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing
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The original can be found in section XLI of Landa's
1155:. New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute,
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79:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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422:were burned. Only three pre-Columbian books of
377:Relation des choses de Yucatán de Diego de Landa
42: and the second or maternal family name is
594:in the 1950s and the succeeding generation of
1327:16th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Mexico
890:, by France V. Scholes and Eleanor B. Adams.
8:
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743:, 2nd. ed. Cambridge: University Press, 1987
559:also created a valuable record of the Maya
310:. In doing so, he burned Maya manuscripts (
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586:. That was confirmed only by the work of
139:Learn how and when to remove this message
1237:Skynet.be: A biography of Diego de Landa
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892:The Hispanic American Historical Review
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533:Landa and contemporary Mayanist studies
1174:Diego de Landa; William Gates (1978).
1337:16th century in the Maya civilization
1177:Yucatan Before and After the Conquest
1091:"Cracking the Maya Code (Transcript)"
715:Blakemore, Erin (15 September 2016).
373:Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
300:Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán
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77:adding citations to reliable sources
987:Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos
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1224:Relación de las cosas de Yucatán
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616:"Bishop Diego de Landa, O.F.M."
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1302:Novohispanic Mesoamericanists
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1132:Cambridge University Press
1071:Thompson, Eric. Review of
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400:, Landa ordered an
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1101:21 November
721:Smithsonian
642:Timmer, 480
486:affliction.
420:cult images
402:Inquisition
383:Inquisition
199:Predecessor
129:August 2023
1276:Categories
1208:2019-03-09
726:2018-11-09
701:2016-09-07
675:18 October
602:References
465:papal bull
411:auto de fé
342:after the
293:Franciscan
249:1524-11-12
99:newspapers
1292:Mayanists
975:Roys, 133
875:162897722
829:144879940
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626:March 25,
596:Mayanists
590:linguist
584:syllabary
332:Cifuentes
256:Cifuentes
209:Successor
1252:Archived
1240:Archived
1217:See also
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579:alphabet
553:Landa's
511:Landa's
453:Cisneros
440:hoisting
330:Born in
304:idolatry
260:Alcarria
229:by
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1113:Sources
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1032:Bibcode
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1095:NOVA
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318:and
306:and
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