The Museo Popol Vuh gets its name from the Popol Vuh one of the most important examples of indigenous literature from the New World . Written in Guatemala 's western highlands around 1550, the Popol Vuh brings together a series of myths and historical narratives of great importance to the study of Guatemala 's indigenous peoples. The names of its authors are unknown, but evidence indicates it was written by prominent members of the Quiché nobility, which ruled a vast region of the Guatemalan highlands during the time of the Spanish conquest. Written in a brilliant poetic style, it is also a masterpiece in literary terms.
The Popol Vuh presents a mythological version of the creation of the world, followed by the adventures of the twin gods, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, that take place in a primordial age before the creation of the first human beings. The triumphs of the heroes over primeval forces and the gods of death give way to the creation of man from maize. The second part of the text concentrates on the origins of the governing lineages of the Quiché kingdom, their migration to Guatemala 's highlands, their territorial conquests, the founding of their principal city, and the history of their kings up until the time of the Spanish conquest.
The original XVI-century text has been lost. We know that it was written in Quiché using the Spanish alphabet. At the beginning and end of the book the authors mention that they were writing because it was no longer possible to see a book called Popol Vuh, which had existed many years before. There has been much speculation about the nature of this book, which must have existed before the arrival of the Spaniards. It was probably an illustrated manuscript similar to the Postclassic codices from central Mexico .
The oldest version of the Popol Vuh still in existence is a transcription of the Quiché text most likely made at the beginning of the XVIII century by a Dominican friar, Francisco Ximénez, who also made the first Spanish translation. Ximénez presented, in two columns, the Quiché text alongside the Spanish version and called it "Here Begin the Histories of the Origins of the Indians of this Providence of Guatemala." Today, this manuscript is part of the Ayer collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago . It was removed from the library of the Universidad Nacional de Guatemala by the French priest Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, who published it for the first time in its entirety in 1861. Numberus other editions and translations have been published since then.
Popol Vuh literally means "book of the mat." Throughout Mesoamerica mats, or petates , were symbols of the kings' authority and power. They were used to sit on by governors, high-ranking courtiers and heads of lineages. For this reason, the title of the book has been translated as the "Council Book."
The mythological tales recounted in the Popol Vuh are closely related to other mythological texts compiled at the beginning of the Colonial period as well as oral traditions handed down to the present in indigenous communities in Guatemala and other parts of Mesoamerica. In recent decades parallels with Classic Maya art have also been demonstrated. In particular, the scenes painted on polychrome ceramics from the Classic period in the Maya lowlands present figures of gods and mythological scenes related to the myths in the Popol Vuh. The Museo Popol Vuh has an important collection of such scenes painted 800 years before the text we know today was written.
Main editions of the Popol Vuh and other important references
Acuña, René
1998 Temas del Popol Vuh. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Akkeren, Ruud van
2003 Authors of the Popol Vuh. Ancient Mesoamerica 14: 237-256.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Étienne
1861 Popol Vuh: Le livre sacré et les mythes de l’antiquité americaine. Paris: A. Bertrand.
Carmack, Robert M.
1973 Quichean civilization: the ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological sources. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Carmack, Robert M., y Francisco Morales Santos
1983 Nuevas Perspectivas sobre el Popol Vuh. Guatemala: Editorial Piedra Santa.
Christenson, Allen J.
2003 Popol Vuh: The sacrd book of the Maya. Winchester, Inglaterra: O Books.
Colop, Sam
1999 Popol Vuh: Versión Poética K’iche’. Guatemala: Editorial Cholsamaj.
Edmonson, Munro S.
1971 The Book of the Counsel: The Popol Vuh of the Quiché Maya of Guatemala. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 35. New Orleans: Tulane University.
Estrada Monroy, Agustín
1973 Popol Vuh: Empiezan las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de Guatemala. Guatemala: Editorial José de Pineda Ibarra. Edición facsimilar del manuscrito de fray Francisco Ximénez.
Girard, Rafael
1948 Esoterismo del Popol Vuh. México: Editores Mexicanos Unidos.
Himelblau, Jack J.
1989 Quiche Worlds in Creation. Culver City, California: Labyrinthos.
Recinos, Adrián
1947 Popol Vuh: Las antiguas historias del Quiché. México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
1950 Popol Vuh. Traducción al inglés de Delia Goetz y Sylvanus G. Morley. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Schultze-Jena, Leonhard
1944 Pool Vuh: Das heilige Buch der Quiché Indianer von Guatemala. Stuttgart.
Tedlock, Dennis
1985 Popol Vuh: The Maya Book of the Dawn of Life. New Yok: Simon and Schuster.
Internet resources on the Popol Vuh
Texto del Popol Vuh, según la traducción al español de Adrián Recinos
http://www.literaturaguatemalteca.org/popol.html
Texto del Popol Vuh, traducción al inglés de Delia Goetz y Sylvanus Morley, basada en la traducción española de Adrián Recinos.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/pvgm/
Esotericism of the Popol Vuh (Traducción al inglés del libro de Raphael Girard)
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/popolvuh/pv-hp.htm
Texto del Popol Vuh
http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/biblioteca/Obrasdeautoranonimo/PopolVuh/PopolVuh.asp
Popol Vuh: The mayan book of the dawn of life (Traslated by Dennis Tedlok with commentary based on the ancient knowledge of the modern Quiches)
http://www.uwec.edu/greider/Indigenous/Popol_Vuh/Popol%20Vuh.htm
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