{"id":55,"date":"2026-02-05T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/?page_id=55"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:26:12","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In 1701, Francisco Xim\u00e9nez, a\u00a0Dominican<\/a>\u00a0priest, came to Santo Tom\u00e1s\u00a0Chichicastenango<\/a>\u00a0(also known as Santo Tom\u00e1s Chuil\u00e1). This town was in the Quich\u00e9 territory and is likely where Xim\u00e9nez first recorded the work.[10]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Xim\u00e9nez transcribed and translated the account, setting up parallel\u00a0K\u02bciche\u02bc<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Spanish<\/a>\u00a0language columns in his manuscript. (He represented the K\u02bciche\u02bc language phonetically <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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with\u00a0Latin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Parra<\/a>\u00a0characters.) In or around 1714, Xim\u00e9nez incorporated the Spanish content in book one, chapters 2\u201321 of his\u00a0Historia de la provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala de la orden de predicadores<\/em>. Xim\u00e9nez’s manuscripts were held posthumously by the Dominican Order until General\u00a0Francisco Moraz\u00e1n<\/a>\u00a0expelled the clerics from\u00a0Guatemala<\/a>\u00a0in 1829\u201330. At that time the Order’s documents were taken over largely by the\u00a0Universidad de San Carlos<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From 1852 to 1855, Moritz Wagner<\/a> and Carl Scherzer<\/a> traveled in Central America, arriving in Guatemala City<\/a> in early May 1854.[11]<\/a><\/sup> Scherzer found Xim\u00e9nez’s writings in the university library, noting that there was one particular item “del mayor inter\u00e9s” (‘of the greatest interest’). With assistance from the Guatemalan historian and archivist Juan Gavarrete<\/a>, 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.[12]<\/a><\/sup> In 1855, French Abbot Charles \u00c9tienne Brasseur de Bourbourg<\/a> also came across <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Xim\u00e9nez’s manuscript in the university library. However, whereas Scherzer copied the manuscript, Brasseur apparently stole the university’s volume and took it back to France.[13]<\/a><\/sup> After Brasseur’s death in 1874, the Mexico-Guat\u00e9malienne collection containing Popol Vuh<\/em> passed to Alphonse Pinart<\/a>, through whom it was sold to Edward E. Ayer<\/a>. In 1897, Ayer decided to donate his 17,000 pieces to The Newberry Library<\/a> in Chicago<\/a>, a project that was not completed until 1911. Father Xim\u00e9nez’s transcription-translation of Popol Vuh<\/em> was among Ayer’s donated items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Priest Xim\u00e9nez’s manuscript sank into obscurity until Adri\u00e1n Recinos<\/a> rediscovered it at the Newberry in 1941. Recinos is generally credited with finding the manuscript and publishing the first direct edition since Scherzer. But Munro Edmonson<\/a> and Carlos L\u00f3pez attribute the first rediscovery to Walter Lehmann<\/a> in 1928.[14]<\/a><\/sup> Experts Allen Christenson, N\u00e9stor Quiroa, Rosa Helena Chinchilla Mazariegos, John Woodruff, and Carlos L\u00f3pez all consider the Newberry volume to be Xim\u00e9nez’s one and only “original.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘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 Adri\u00e1n Recinos, both phonetics and etymology connect to ‘People’s book’, in the line of ‘people’ used as a synonym for the whole nation or tribe, as in ‘Bible, book of Lord’s people’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1701, Francisco Xim\u00e9nez, a\u00a0Dominican\u00a0priest, came to Santo Tom\u00e1s\u00a0Chichicastenango\u00a0(also known as Santo Tom\u00e1s Chuil\u00e1). This town was in the Quich\u00e9 territory and is likely where Xim\u00e9nez first recorded the work.[10]\u00a0Xim\u00e9nez transcribed and translated the account, setting up parallel\u00a0K\u02bciche\u02bc\u00a0and\u00a0Spanish\u00a0language columns in his manuscript. (He represented the K\u02bciche\u02bc language phonetically with\u00a0Latin\u00a0and\u00a0Parra\u00a0characters.) In or around 1714, Xim\u00e9nez incorporated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-no-title","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-55","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93,"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web110nunez.mydcts.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}