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.
The difficulty of obtaining Adriaan Reland's linguistic works in Philadelphia apparently lead Peter Stephen Du Ponceau to copy out sections of the Dissertationum, probably in 1822. Drawn in turn from a number of earlier sources, these sections include:
1 volume, 35 p., copy.
Presented by Peter S. Du Ponceau, 1844; accessioned, 1900.
Cite as: Adriaan Reland, Vocabularia variarum linguarum Americanarum, American Philosophical Society.
Catalogued by rsc, 2004.
Briefly described in the online Daythal Kendall Guide to Native American Collections at the American Philosophical Society.
Peter Du Ponceau made this copy of Adriaan Reland's Dictionary in 1822. Reland made his dictionary in 1708. It contains the vocabularies of various Native American languages.
