Adriaan Reland, American Philosophical Society

Table of contents

Abstract

Widely known for his in-depth studies of Islam, the Dutch linguist and Orientalist Adriaan Reland (1676-1718) spent most of his career as Professor of Oriental languages at the University of Utrech. A master of many classical and living languages, he delved into issues in historical linguistics in his collected essays, Dissertationum miscellanearum partes tres (1706-1708), touching on languages from Indonesia and East Asia to North and South America.

The difficulty of obtaining Adriaan Reland's linguistic works in Philadelphia apparently lead Peter Stephen Duponceau to copy out sections of the Dissertationum, probably in 1822. Drawn in turn from a number of earlier sources, these sections include "Brasilian" (i.e. Mapuche), "Chilean," "Peruvian" (Quechua), "Guatimalan" (Pocomam), "Caribbean" (Arawak or Carib), "Mexican" (Nahuatl), "Virginian" (Massachusett), Algonkian, and Huron.

Background note
Scope & content
Administrative information
Additional information
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Background note

Widely known for his in-depth studies of Islam, the Dutch linguist and Orientalist Adriaan Reland (1676-1718) spent most of his career as Professor of Oriental languages at the University of Utrech. A master of many classical and living languages, he published two important geographical works on biblical Palestine, Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum (1708) and Palestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrate (1714), and delved into broader issues in historical linguistics in his collected essays, Dissertationum miscellanearum partes tres (1706-1708), touching on languages from Indonesia and East Asia to North and South America.

Scope and content

Brasilian = Mapuche (from Emanuel de Moraes, Theodore de Bry, Josephus de Anchieta, p.1.
Chilean (from Barlaeus), p.9.
Peruvian (from Garcilaso de la Vega), p.17.
Guatimala = Pocomam (from Thomas Gage), p.19.
Caribbean = Arawak or Carib (from C. de Rochefort), p.20.
Mexican = Nahuatl, p.25.
Virginian = Massachusett (from John Eliot), p.27.
Algonkian (from Lahontan), p.30.
Huron, p.34.

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

Gift of Peter Stephen Duponceau, 1822.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Adriaan Reland, Vocabularia variarum linguarum Americanarum, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Catalogued by rsc, 2004.

Other finding aids

Briefly described in the On-line Guide to American Indian Manuscripts at the American Philosophical Society.