Manuel Antonio de Rivas

Last updated April 21, 2019

Manuel Antonio de Rivas was a Franciscan friar in Mérida, a Spanish colonial town on the Yucatán Peninsula. Details of his life are sketchy, though there are court documents that prove that in the 1770s he was accused of heresy.^[1] He is best known for an account of a journey of lunar discovery, Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures, which is credited as the first science fiction text written in the Americas.^[2]

Mérida is the capital and largest city in Yucatan state in Mexico, as well as the largest city of the Yucatán Peninsula. The city is located in the northwest part of the state, about 35 kilometres off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The city is also the municipal seat of the Municipality of Mérida, which includes the city and the areas around it.

The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America. It is approximately 181,000 km² (70,000 sq mi) in area, and is almost entirely composed of limestone.

Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs. Heresy is distinct from both apostasy, which is the explicit renunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is an impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.

Biography

Little is known of Rivas's life outside of the trial for heresy; his birth and death dates are unknown,^[3] though it appears he was already an old man by the time he was brought to trial.^[4] According to Rivas scholar Miguel Ángel Fernández Delgado, he arrived in Yucatán in 1742, and soon started "making enemies and trouble for himself." He deviated from orthodoxy by believing, for instance, that heavenly bodies affected human behavior (denying free will), reading banned books, and criticizing the veneration of saints. Apparently he printed leaflets critical of his fellow churchmen and distributed them. His behavior was so offensive that he was put on trial in 1775, a trial which revealed his speculative book on lunar travel. He was accused of believing in astrology, of proposing a "branch of hell in the Sun's center," and of endorsing the heliocentrism of Nicolaus Copernicus.^[5] An accusation of sodomy was dropped quickly.^[1] His Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures was one of the main pieces of evidence; fortunately for him, the court judged it to be a fable, and charges were withdrawn.^[5]

The Index librorum prohibitorum was a list of publications deemed heretical, or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index and thus Catholics were forbidden to read them without permission.

Veneration the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness

Veneration, or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Philologically, "to venerate" derives from the Latin verb, venerare, meaning to regard with reverence and respect. Veneration of saints is practiced, formally or informally, by adherents of some branches of all major religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism.

Astrology is a pseudoscience that claims to divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, and has its roots in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from which it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Arab world and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person's personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.

Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures

Textual history

The full title of Rivas's 11-folio booklet is translated in English as Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures Aligned to the Meridian of Mérida of the Yucatán by an Anctitone or Inhabitant of the Moon, and Addressed to the Scholar Don Ambrosio de Echevarria, Reciter of Funeral Kyries in the Parish of Jesus of Said City, and Presently Teacher of Logarithm in the Town of Mama of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Year of the Lord 1775.^[2] No actual date of composition is given in the manuscript.

The manuscript was rediscovered in 1958 by Pablo González Casanova, "hidden among the dusty volumes of the National Archives in Mexico City"^[2]—in fact, among the documents compiled by the Inquisition pertaining to Rivas's trial.^[5] It was referenced in a 1977 study of Mexican literature, but was not commented on or published until 1994. An extensive study of Rivas and his lunar narrative was published in 1995 by Delgado, who published a complete, critical edition of the text in 2001.^[2]

The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the government system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. It started in 12th-century France to combat religious dissent, in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians. Other groups investigated later included the Spiritual Franciscans, the Hussites and the Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges. The term Medieval Inquisition covers these courts up to mid-15th century.

Genesis

Rivas was evidently influenced by European narratives of lunar exploration, including Lucian's True History , Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis , Johannes Kepler's Somnium , Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone , John Wilkins' Discovery of a New World , Cyrano de Bergerac's The Voyage to the Moon , Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle's Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds ,^[2] and Voltaire's Micromégas .^[4]

New Atlantis is an incomplete utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, published in 1627. In this work, Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel depicts the creation of a utopian land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of the mythical Bensalem. The plan and organisation of his ideal college, Salomon's House, envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure sciences. The book presents unlimited power for the rule of self appointed "scientific" experts - for example it is forbidden to even tell ordinary people that the Earth goes round the Sun. There are no legal principles of natural justice limiting the power of this elite of "scientific" experts in Sir Francis Bacon's version of utopia.

Somnium is a novel written in 1608, in Latin, by Johannes Kepler. The narrative would not be published until 1634 by Kepler's son, Ludwig Kepler. In the narrative, an Icelandic boy and his witch mother learn of an island named Levania from a daemon. Somnium presents a detailed imaginative description of how the Earth might look when viewed from the Moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as one of the first works of science fiction.

The Man in the Moone is a book by the English divine and Church of England bishop Francis Godwin (1562–1633), describing a "voyage of utopian discovery". Long considered to be one of his early works, it is now generally thought to have been written in the late 1620s. It was first published posthumously in 1638 under the pseudonym of Domingo Gonsales. The work is notable for its role in what was called the "new astronomy", the branch of astronomy influenced especially by Nicolaus Copernicus. Although Copernicus is the only astronomer mentioned by name, the book also draws on the theories of Johannes Kepler and William Gilbert. Godwin's astronomical theories were greatly influenced by Galileo Galilei's Sidereus Nuncius (1610), but unlike Galileo, Godwin proposes that the dark spots on the Moon are seas, one of many parallels with Kepler's Somnium sive opus posthumum de astronomia lunari of 1634.

Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures (syzygy and quadrature are terms in astronomy) consists of two parts—the first is an account of a lunar voyage by a Frenchman, Onésimo Dutalon in epistolary form, and it precedes another letter containing an astronomical almanac. Both are addressed to a Don Ambrosio de Echevarria (an "observer of lunar movements"^[5]) and are written by "anctitones", the inhabitants of the Moon.

In astronomy, a syzygy is a (roughly) straight-line configuration of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational system.

In spherical astronomy, quadrature is the configuration of a celestial object in which its elongation is perpendicular to the direction of the Sun. It is applied especially to the position of a superior planet or the Moon at its first and last quarter phases.

An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use. The word epistolary is derived from Latin from the Greek word ἐπιστολή epistolē, meaning a letter.

In their first letter, the anctitones write to Echevarria about a visit they received from Onésimo Dutalon, a French astronomer, who had written them a very informative and erudite letter with data about syzygies and quadrature. They are pondering how to respond to the letter when Dutalon shows up on the Moon in a flying vessel, evidently propelled by wings. Dutalon tells them his life story, and shares his astronomical information and, among others, the theories of Isaac Newton and the philosophy of René Descartes—according to Delgado, Dutalon is the "obvious mouthpiece of Rivas."^[5] While the president of the Moon university is preparing a welcome speech, an interruption comes in the form of a "legion of space demons", who have stopped on their way to the Sun where they are taking the soul of a materialist. Satan had apparently refused this soul in order to preserve order in his domain; Dutalon explains that hell is actually placed in the Sun, a theory he based on that of an Anglican scholar.^[6] The letter is signed by the president of the Moon university.

The anctitones provided fodder for the Inquisition's trial: as it happens, they have studied Earth and its inhabitants for a long time, and question various elements on earthly history. For instance, they have doubts about Biblical chronology, and about "the mythological return of the Messiah". They also recall the legend of Phaëton, whose fiery accident burned the lunar records, forcing them to start their history anew, in "a new Lunar Era," now 7,914,522 years ago.^[2]

The second letter contains "strange"^[5] anctitone remarks on different Earthly chronologies, and ends with a detailed almanac and notes on stellar observations for the year 1775.

English translation

The first full English translation of Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures was published in the journal Eleven Eleven in 2015.^[7]

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References

1 2 Sigal, Peter Herman (2000). From moon goddesses to virgins: the colonization of Yucatecan Maya sexual desire. U of Texas P. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-292-77753-8.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Dziubinskyj, Aaron (2003). "The Birth of Science Fiction in Spanish America". Science Fiction Studies . 30 (1): 21–32.
↑ Ferreira, Rachel Haywood (2011). The Emergence of Latin American Science Fiction. Wesleyan UP. p. 234. ISBN 978-0-8195-7081-9.
1 2 Trujillo Muñoz, Gabriel (2000). Biografías del futuro: la ciencia ficción mexicana y sus autores (in Spanish). Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. p. 28. ISBN 970-9051-21-0.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Delgado, Miguel Ángel Fernández (2004). "Manuel Antonio de Rivas (dates unknown)". In Darrell B. Lockhardt. Latin American science fiction writers: an A-to-Z guide. Westport: Greenwood. pp. 168–69. ISBN 978-0-313-30553-5.
↑ The Anglican is called "Sevidín", a reference to M. Swinden, author of Investigation of the Nature of the Fire of Hell and the Place Where it is Found (Leiden, 1733), according to Delgado. See Dziubinskyj, 29 note 16.
↑ Manuel Antonio de Rivas (2015) "Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures", trans. Fionn Petch. Eleven Eleven19: 130-136. ISSN 1548-243x