Languages
El camino is in three languages. As a Catholic book, there are a few words and phrases in Latin, but the main languages are Spanish and, as outlined by the title, ‘Mexican’ or what is today called Nahuatl. Each section treats language differently. The first section after the introduction is the Catholic Catechism. This section is entirely in Nahuatl, with the occasional Latin phrase or word. The confessional section, however, is in columns: Nahuatl on one side, and Spanish on the other. Finally, the ‘calendar’ section is in Spanish.
These language choices seem purely practical. The catechism was meant to be read and studied, and therefore it makes sense that it would be written to and for the prospective converts in their native language. The confessional in both English and Spanish also makes sense, as it offers both the confessor’s and the penitent’s dialogue, which would allow the Spanish priest a guide if their penitent did not speak Spanish. The side-by-side translations could also have been used to influence the penitent to use and learn Spanish. Finally, the calendar in Spanish would have allowed the priests or missionaries to understand the Native calendar and their important celebrations by equating them to the Christian calendar and holidays.
The end of El camino features a calendar that equates the Aztec times of year with their Gregorian equivalent. There are many practical purposes of this calendar, including both the ability to provide the missionaries on information of the Aztecan religious celebrations as well as to inform recent converts about when to celebrate their new Christian holidays like Easter. While the book is a tool for both the Catholic missionaries and their prospective converts, some chapters seem to target one group of readers more than others. For example, the all-Nahuatl Catechism is definitely intended for the indigenous population, where the calendar, both in language and in content, is geared more towards the clergy.
The fact that this bible has three languages side-by-side in the first place is rather interesting. As the bible was closely connected towards the drive for literacy and was often what renaissance learners first used when learning to read, a polyglot bible may be intended to help with second and third language acquisition. As this bible was printed in Amsterdam, the likely owner of this book would have probably been trying to learn English and French, two prominent languages of the day. They could use the middle column as a reference whenever running into difficulties in understanding the other languages they were trying to learn without having to reference another book entirely, making the learning process both more simple and less expensive.
“… That the New Testament, which is the principal, most profitable and comfortable piece of holy writte – more proper and pregnant than the other part not yet printed.”
The opening paragraph indicates a preference, at least spiritually, for the New Testament over the Old Testament. This “preference” may explain why the Duoai-Rhemes translation of the Old Testament was finally published completely 1610 – a rather long gap of 32 years due to extenuating circumstances and financial issues.
The preface then details the history of bible translations. Starting with the Armenian pieces translated by Saint Chrysostom, Saint Jerome’s (written as Hierom in the book) Latin Vulgate, and Jacobus Archbishop of Genoa’s Italian bible and the French bible by the “French King.”
The preface “anoints” itself, being a work translated to English from Latin and Greek clarifying that “the governors of the church – guided by God’s spirit, learned tongues wherein scriptures were written, read, reasoned, and disputed and tossed.”
The preface then explains its own translation process in great detail, for instance how Greek or Latin phrases and bible keywords were given their English equivalent. For example, the preface highlights their process of translating the Greek word of “Allelu-ia” to the English phrase of “Praise ye the Lord.” This part of the preface also explains that some words were kept the same; “Amen” is left as such, because the writer thought it to be more preferable to it’s English equivalent – “so be it.”
The main theme of the preface, however, is the debate between the merits of Latin Vulgate Bible and the Greek Bible – and the translations derived from the two aforementioned versions. Throughout the preface, two key points are revisited constantly, the spiritual corruption of the Latin bible by the Protestants, and the corruption of the Greek bible by Heretics, using references to Calvin and Luther as examples.