Valades

[Galen Brokaw]

Fray Diego Valades, the Tlaxcalan mestizo, includes in his RHETORICA
CHRISTIANA (1579) an illustration that includes an image for each letter
of the alphabet to be used as a mnemonic technique. He first explains in
Latin how this system works: the shape of the object is what establishes
the connection. So, a compass or a ladder could be used for the letter
A. He then provides another illustration in which he says he uses images
of things of the Indians that serve to represent the letters, but he
doesn't explain. And I don't see how any of the images that he includes
resemble the letters. Evidently at least one scholar has claimed that
these objects are meant to invoke Nahuatl words whose initial
sound/letter coincides with the letter assigned to the object in the
illustration. But, of course, this would not be consistent with the way
he explained the technique which is supposed to be based on the shape of
the image. It would seem that the only other solution would be to
establish merely an arbitrary relationship between the letter and the
image forming a kind of pictographic alphabet. Does anybody know if this
issue has been resolved? Has anybody every attempted to identify which
Nahuatl words the images might be attempting to invoke? If not, does
anybody know what exactly the relationship is between the images and the
letters in this diagram?
If anyone is interested in try to solve this puzzle, I can send you a
copy of the image that I scanned.
Interestingly, some of the images are clearly related to the
pictographic tradition of the codices. Valades was born in Tlaxcala, and
from the way he talks, it would seem he was very familiar with the
indigenous pictographic tradition. And if he produced the drawing for
this "indigenous alphabet", the style of at least the first couple of
images would seem to indicate this as well.
I am aware that Samuel Edgerton discusses Valades in his recent book,
which I have just requested through interlibrary loan. Does anyone know
if he addresses this issue?
Thanks,
Galen