Basque Classics Series
This collection seeks to provide in English translation key texts
and authors in the cultural development of the Basque Country. It
will also publish anthologies and possibly monographs of key
near-contemporary scholars of outstanding worth who have made
serious contributions to our understanding of Basque history,
linguistics and culture.
Published by the Center for Basque Studies. To order contact the Center for Basque Studies (775.784.4854) or you may request titles from any major book dealer, who will
obtain them on order if they are not in stock.
Koldo Mitxelena: Selected Writings of a Basque Scholar
Edited by Pello Salaburu (2008)
This work brings together a number of texts by Koldo Mitxelena (also known as Luis Michelena) concerning the Basque language, its history, and its literature. The Basque language is used on both sides of the Pyrenees, along the Bay of Biscay, in the borderlands between Spain and France. It is a non–Indo-European language of unknown origins and with no known relatives; it is an ergative language, with a very different syntactic structure from Spanish, French, English, or German. Some of the texts in the present work are more general or informative, while others require a degree of familiarity with linguistics. The reader will find a clear explanation of the Basque language, together with a systematic account of the theories surrounding its relationship with other languages, its dialects, and its literature.
Furthermore, there is ample information
about certain central features associated with the history of the language,
about its phonetic and phonological system, and about the first writings
in Basque. Also included is the text of his unification proposal that,
since 1968, has made the written unification of the language possible.
As a general criterion, the texts selected here have not been previously
published in English.
Paper, $29.95 (ISBN 978-1-877802-80-5); Hardcover, $39.95 (ISBN 978-1-877802-81-2).
Selected Writings of José Miguel de Barandiarán: Basque Prehistory and Ethnography
Edited by Jesus Altuna (2008)
Noted Basque ethnographer José Miguel de Barandiarán was an exceptional witness to an entire century of the history of the Basque Country. He was born in 1889 and died in 1991, just prior to his 102nd birthday, having remained active until a year before his death. An ordained priest, he dedicated most of his life to researching the past of his homeland. His research included excavating caves and dolmens as well as recording the traditional lifeways, legends, and superstitions of the Basque people. His findings were published in hundreds of articles appearing in the Anuario de Eusko-folklore and other journals, as well asseveral monographs.
This work includes an extensive introduction by the editor, Jesús Altuna,with biographical information on Barandiarán and a discussion of the selected writings. These are taken from Barandiarán’s books Mitología vasca (Basque Mythology), El Hombre prehistórico en el País Vasco (Prehistoric Man in the Basque Country), and Bosquejo etnográfico de Sara (An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara). Included are a number of Barandiarán’s drawings, plus photographs, bibliography, and an index.
291 pages. Hardcover $39.95 (ISBN 978-1-877802-70-6); paper $29.95 (ISBN 978-1-877802-69-0).
Anthology of Apologists and Detractors of the Basque Language
by Juan Madariaga Orbea (2006)
Translated by Frederick H. Fornoff, María Cristina Saavedra,
Amaia Gabantxo, and Cameron J. Watson.
A thorough
introduction is followed by texts from numerous authors
presenting arguments on the excellence or inferiority of the
Basque language. “From the seventeenth through the nineteenth
centuries . . . a number of Spanish and French authors made it
their business to point out the barbarity and lack of literary
development of the Basque language . . . On the other hand, the
Basque apologists sought to legitimize the [language and foral system] through the creation of a construct, more or
less mythical in essence, which with great frequency relied on
the excellence of the Basque language for its justification . .
. This anthology attempts to present the most important works of
this secular polemic.”
704 pages. Hardcover,
$39.95 (ISBN 1-877802-63-8); paper, $29.95 (ISBN 1-877802-62-X).
The Old Law of Bizkaia (1452):
A Critical Edition
Compiled, edited and annotated by Gregorio Monreal Zia
(2005)
In
1452, Bizkaians assembled beneath their sacred Oak of Gernika
and approved a redaction of the laws and customs that had
informed their legal practices for centuries. Text provides
clear insight into the Bizkaian concept of community and its
participation in the elaboration of law, encompassing an
extraordinary range of individual and collective liberties.
376 pages; index. Cloth, $29.95 ( ISBN 1-877802-52-2; paper,
$24.95 (ISBN 1-877802-53-0).