'Popol Vuh' is also spelled as 'Popol Vuj', its sound in Spanish use is close to German term for 'book': 'buch', in the translation of title meaning by Adrián Recinos, both phonetics and etymology connect to 'People's book', in the line of 'people' used as a synonim for the whole nation or tribe, as in 'Bible, book of Lord's people'.įather Ximénez's manuscript contains the oldest known text of Popol Vuh. Experts Allen Christenson, Néstor Quiroa, Rosa Helena Chinchilla Mazariegos, John Woodruff, and Carlos López all consider the Newberry volume to be Ximénez's one and only 'original.' But Munro Edmonson and Carlos López attribute the first rediscovery to Walter Lehmann in 1928. Recinos is generally credited with finding the manuscript and publishing the first direct edition since Scherzer.

Priest Ximénez's manuscript sank into obscurity until Adrián Recinos rediscovered it at the Newberry in 1941. Father Ximénez's transcription-translation of Popol Vuh was among Ayer's donated items. In 1897, Ayer decided to donate his 17,000 pieces to The Newberry Library in Chicago, a project that was not completed until 1911. After Brasseur's death in 1874, the Mexico-Guatémalienne collection containing Popol Vuh passed to Alphonse Pinart, through whom it was sold to Edward E. However, whereas Scherzer copied the manuscript, Brasseur apparently stole the university's volume and took it back to France. In 1855, French Abbot Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg also came across Ximénez's manuscript in the university library. With assistance from the Guatemalan historian and archivist Juan Gavarrete, Scherzer copied (or had a copy made of) the Spanish content from the last half of the manuscript, which he published upon his return to Europe. Scherzer found Ximénez's writings in the university library, noting that there was one particular item 'del mayor interés' ('of the greatest interest'). At that time the Order's documents were taken over largely by the Universidad de San Carlos.įrom 1852 to 1855, Moritz Wagner and Carl Scherzer traveled in Central America, arriving in Guatemala City in early May 1854. Ximénez's manuscripts were held posthumously by the Dominican Order until General Francisco Morazán expelled the clerics from Guatemala in 1829–30. (He represented the Kʼicheʼ language phonetically with Latin and Parra characters.) In or around 1714, Ximénez incorporated the Spanish content in book one, chapters 2–21 of his Historia de la provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala de la orden de predicadores. Ximénez transcribed and translated the account, setting up parallel Kʼicheʼ and Spanish language columns in his manuscript. This town was in the Quiché territory and is likely where Ximénez first recorded the work. In 1701, Francisco Ximénez, priest of Dominicane order, came to Santo Tomás Chichicastenango (also known as Santo Tomás Chuilá). After the Spanish conquest, missionaries and colonists destroyed many documents. Like the Chilam Balam and similar texts, the Popol Vuh is of particular importance given the scarcity of early accounts dealing with Mesoamerican mythologies. The documentation of the Popol Vuh is credited to the 18th-century Spanish Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez, who prepared a manuscript with a transcription in Kʼicheʼ and parallel columns with translations into Spanish.

It was originally preserved through oral tradition until approximately 1550, when it was recorded in writing. The name 'Popol Vuh' translates as 'Book of the Community' or 'Book of Counsel' (literally 'Book that pertains to the mat', since a woven mat was used as a royal throne in ancient Kʼicheʼ society and symbolised the unity of the community). It includes the Mayan creation myth, the exploits of the Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, and a chronicle of the Kʼicheʼ people. The Popol Vuh is a foundational sacred narrative of the Kʼicheʼ people from long before the Spanish conquest of the Maya. Popol Vuh (also Popul Vuh or Pop Vuj) is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as areas of Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. The oldest surviving written account of Popol Vuh (ms c. For other uses, see Popol Vuh (disambiguation).

Ancient inuit glyphs