Fray Andrés de Olmos was, along with Sahagún and Motolinia, one of (in James Lockhart’s words) “the early Spanish titans of Nahautl language studies.” In the 1540s Olmos produced the earliest extant grammar of the language then called mexicana, complete with auxiliary sections including a list of idiomatic expressions and a series of sample speeches by Nahua informants. Olmos probably contributed to the orthographic adaptation of Roman alphabetic script to Nahuatl, and while his grammar is arguably less useful than Molina’s (1571) and Carochi’s (1645), no other work of quite this kind survives from the contact period.
Furthermore, the auxiliary sections of Olmos’ Arte para aprender la lengua mexicana (which vary among the six extant manuscripts) may be the most valuable parts of the work. Accordingly, rather than translating the entire Arte (two manuscripts of which have been published in fascimile form with some Spanish translations), Judith Maxwell and Craig Hanson have given a comprehensive and scholarly treatment to one important section: chapter 8, the Metáforas, or Metaphors. Their edition includes an introduction that adequately contextualizes the manuscript, a photographic reproduction of the manuscript’s version of chapter 8, the first English translation of the Metaphors (in both literal and “literary” versions), extensive line-by-line annotations, and a 250-page Nahuatl-English/English-Nahuatl morpheme concordance.
The 52 Metaphors, most just a few lines long, are concerned largely with lineage, duties of persons cast in various class roles, correct conduct, and proper speech. From this thematic standpoint, Maxwell and Hanson’s edition compares fairly well with Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart’s work The Art of Nahuatl Speech: The Bancroft Dialogues (1987). Both volumes are ambitious linguistic projects and probably would be of similar utility to students of Nahuatl; the Maxwell and Hanson volume would compare more favorably, as well as more closely in terms of genre, had the authors also included a treatment of the huehuehtlahtolli sections of Olmos’ Arte. This would also have allowed readers to draw a fuller comparison with book 6 of Sahagún’s Florentine Codex.
By and large, Maxwell and Hanson’s language skills appear to have been adequate to the challenge of the project. Unfortunately, some inconsistencies in their use of orthography, in their translations, and between the literal translations and the morpheme concordance will have some nahuatlatos questioning the assiduity of the authors’ scholarship. Of course, that may only trouble those whose knowledge of Nahuatl is greater than Maxwell’s and Hanson’s. In any case, this is a volume that is more likely to be discussed than ignored; it is an impressive, if imperfect, contribution to the field of Nahuatl studies.
