Ludovico Bertonio (1552 in Rocca Contrada – 3 August 1625 in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...

) was an Italian

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionary to South America.

Life

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1575. Sent to Peru six years later, he worked principally among the Aymara of southern Peru and of

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Work

Vocabulario de la lengua aymara Ludovico Bertonio 1612 title page

Arte y grammatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara Ludovico Bertonio 1603 title page

He wrote on the

Aymara language Aymara (; also ) is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Bolivian Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over one million speakers.The other native American languages with more than one millio ...

. His earliest publications appeared under the title ''Arte breve de la lengua aymara para introducir el Arte grande de la misma lengua'' (Rome, 1603), also ''Arte y gramatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara'' etc. The printing press having been introduced and established by the Jesuits at the Indian mission of in southwestern Peru, Bertonio had the following works printed there, including four in the year 1612 alone:
''Arte y Grammatica muy copiosa de la Lengua Aymara'' (1603)
* ''Arte Breve de la Lengua Aymara para Introducción del Arte Grande de la misma Lengua'' (1603)
''Vocabulario de la Lengua Aymara'' (1612)

''Arte de la Lengua Aymara. Con una Silva de Phrases de la misma lengua y declaracion en Romance'' (1612)

''Libro de la Vida y Milagros de Nuestro Señor Iesu Christo en dos Lenguas. Aymara y Romance'' (1612)

''Confessionario muy copioso en dos lenguas Aymara y Española, con una instrucción a cerca de los Siete Sacramentos de la Sancta Yglesia y otras varias cosas'' (1612)
The publications by Bertonio are rare. Julius Platzmann published in facsimile the ''Arte y grammatica'' of 1603 and the Vocabularies. The Peruvian historian Clemente Markham claimed that Bertonio invented the name "Aymara"; the Bolivian geographer Manuel Vicente Ballivian rejected this in a pamphlet.

References

* ;Attribution * The entry cites: **Torres Saldamando, ''Los antiguos Jesuitas del Peru'' (Lima, 1882); **Mendiburu, ''Diccionario'' (Lima, 1876), II: **Ballivian, ''Boletin de la Sociedad geografica de la Paz''.

External links

*Bertonio, Ludovico,
''Vocabulario de la Lengua Ayamara''
1612
Fully digitized works by Ludovico Bertonio on Internet Archive1984 Reprint of ''Vocabulario de la Lengua Aymara'' by Xavier Albó and Felix Layme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertonio, Ludovico 1552 births 1625 deaths People from Arcevia 16th-century Italian Jesuits Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Bolivia Italian expatriates in Peru Italian expatriates in Bolivia Jesuit missionaries in Peru