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Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della

book

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ259309 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della is a 1645 grammar of the Nahuatl language in Spanish by Jesuit grammarian Horacio Carochi. This classic work on the Classical Nahuatl language is now considered by linguists to be the finest and most useful of the many extant early grammars of Nahuatl.

Innovation and 1759 reprint

Carochi had an acute understanding of the Nahuatl language and was the first grammarian to understand and propose a consistent transcription of several phenomena in Nahuatl phonology, especially vowel length and the saltillo (glottal stop). His art was seen as important soon after its elaboration and already in 1759 a version called "compendio del arte ..." re-edited by Fray Ignacio Paredes was prepared and reprinted. This version which has been reprinted many times since, however, lacks most of the virtues of the original work.

2001 version

In 2001 it was published as "Grammar of the Mexican language: with an explanation of its adverbs" in an edition where the Spanish paleographic version appears side-by-side with an English translation by James Lockhart.

Derivative work

The 1754 Nahuatl grammar Arte de la lengua mexicana is considered particularly derivative of Carochi's work.

Notes

References

1759. "Compendio del arte de la lengua mexicana, dispuesto . . ." por el P. Ignacio de Paredes.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della” is book. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Arte, lengua and mexicana, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1645, 1759, 2001, 1754—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1645. For this dossier, Arte, lengua and mexicana is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “book” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q259309. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1645, 1759, 2001 and 1754.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
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Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della primary sources, Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della archive and Arte research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.