Arte de Lengua Zapoteca

A grammatical text in Spanish and Colonial Valley Zapotec.

About the Arte

Levanto’s Arte de Lengua Zapoteca is a grammar of Colonial Valley Zapotec published in 1732 (about 150 years after Cordova published his Arte). Although the 1732 Arte was published by Leonardo Levanto, a Spanish priest in the Domician order, it was likely prepared with the help of unnamed native speakers of Zapotec. This edition contains 200 handwritten pages. The grammar is followed by a series of scripts and phrases that a Priest might use, including a sample Confession and a Baptism ceremony. These supplementary texts are composed of interwoven Spanish and Zapotec translations.

 

Images courtesy of John Carter Brown Library and archive.org.