Nancy Senior / Sir John A. Macdonald Award from Canada's History.
The stunning visual arts literary work of this year’s recipient of the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize has been displayed in a museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma and now it’s receiving national recognition on this side of the border. The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas: The Natural History of the New World is the recipient of the 2012 Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research.
This 17th-century illustrated natural history of eastern North America — centered on present-day Quebec — brings to a modern audience the writings and drawings of a French Jesuit priest, Louis Nicolas, who explored Canada between 1664 and 1675. The beautiful eighty-eight pages of colour illustrations are a detailed documentation of wildlife and aboriginal culture.
Réal Ouellet of Université Laval modernized the original French text, and Nancy Senior of the University of Saskatchewan translated it into English. The introduction by art historian François-Marc Gagnon puts Nicola’s text and images into the context of the 17th-century priest who lived among the Indians of fifteen different nations over a decade.
“This year’s winning entry is a great reminder that the Macdonald Prize is more than simply about scholarly monographs,” observed Michel Duquet, CHA Executive Director. “It recognises a wide range of scholarly works. Codex Canadensis is a model of interdisciplinary research and of erudite contextualization that is highly deserving of the prize.” Read more about the Codex.
About the award
The Canadian Historical Association’s Sir John A. Macdonald Prize is a key award that was integrated into the Vice-Regal Awards program in 2010 as the Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research.
For the past thirty-four years, the association has presented the prize to the non-fiction work of Canadian history publishing in the last year judged to have made the most significant contribution to an understanding of the Canadian past.
Manulife Financial generously provides the $5,000 cash prize that accompanies the award. Visit the CHA website for more details about the award (and scroll down to see the winners since the award's inception in 1977).
Past Winners
Michel Ducharme received the 2011 Macdonald Prize for his book Le concept de liberté au Canada a l’époque des Révolutions atlantiques (1776-1838).
2010 winner of the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize Dr. Béatrice Craig won for her book Backwoods Consumers and Homespun Capitalists: The Rise of a Market Culture in Eastern Canada.
The Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research: the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize is presented by the Canadian Historical Association and Manulife Financial.