The Salve Regina of the Franciscan Friar Maturino Gilbeforti (16th Century): The Translation of Saint Mary’s Name and Attributes Into the Tarascan Language

Abstract

Upon arriving in the New World, Fray Maturino Gilberti learned Tarascan and other Indigenous languages. He devoted his life to the conversion of the Tarascan population and, with the same purpose, to the composition of doctrinal texts and works intended to instruct the practices of Catholicism. An analysis of the Salve Regina reveals the search for Tarascan terms and expressions capable of adequately conveying its theological content. Owing to a different social organisation, the absence of direct lexical correspondences can be observed – ‘regina’ being one of the most evident examples – as well as the presence of approximate equivalences that fail fully to achieve their intended meaning, such as ‘dulcedo’, translated as vrimarari. Other translations, by contrast, became established and have persisted to the present day, such as ‘virgin’ rendered as yurixe, while others present no difficulty at all, for example ‘mater’, translated as nana.