Editing Popol Vuh (section)

===Francisco Ximénez's manuscript===
In 1701, Francisco Ximénez, a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] priest, came to Santo Tomás [[Chichicastenango]] (also known as Santo Tomás Chuilá). This town was in the Quiché territory and is likely where Ximénez first recorded the work.<ref>Ximénez's title page reads in part, "cvra doctrinero por el real patronato del pveblo de Sto. Tomas Chvila" ('doctrinal priest of the district of Santo Tomás Chuilá').</ref> Ximénez transcribed and translated the account, setting up parallel [[Kʼicheʼ language|Kʼicheʼ]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] language columns in his manuscript. (He represented the Kʼicheʼ language  phonetically with [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] and [[Parra letter|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's manuscripts were held posthumously by the Dominican Order until General [[Francisco Morazán]] expelled the clerics from [[Guatemala]] in 1829–30. At that time the Order's documents were taken over largely by the [[Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala|Universidad de San Carlos]].

From 1852 to 1855, [[Moritz Wagner (naturalist)|Moritz Wagner]] and [[Carl Scherzer]] traveled in Central America, arriving in [[Guatemala City]] in early May 1854.<ref>Woodruff 2009</ref> Scherzer found Ximénez's writings in the university library, noting that there was one particular item "del mayor interés" ('of the greatest interest'). 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.<ref>Scherzer also published a detailed inventory of the contents in an 1857 edition that coincides with the Ayer ms. Scherzer's [[copyscript]] and edition beginning at the third internal title: 1) ''Arte de las tres lengvas Kakchiqvel, Qvíche y Zvtvhil'', 2) ''Tratado segvndo de todo lo qve deve saber vn mínístro para la buena admínístraçíon de estos natvrales'', 3) ''Empiezan las historias del origen de los indíos de esta provinçia de Gvatemala'', 4) ''Escolíos a las hístorías de el orígen de los indios'' [note: spelling is that of Ximénez, but capitalization is modified here for stylistic reasons].</ref> In 1855, French Abbot [[Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg]] also came across Ximénez'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.<ref>Woodruff 2009 pp. 46–47. Brasseur mentions Ximénez's ''Popol Vuh'' manuscript in three different works from 1857–1871, but never cites the library document as the source of his 1861 French edition. See ''Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale'' (1857), ''Popol vuh. Le livre sacré'' (1861), and ''Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne'' (1871). It was not until fifteen years after his return to Europe that Brasseur suggested a specific provenance of his source material; he said that it had come from Ignacio Coloche in Rabinal. The inconsistency among his statements led Munro Edmonson (1971) to postulate that there had been multiple manuscripts in Guatemala.</ref> 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. Ayer]]. In 1897, Ayer decided to donate his 17,000 pieces to [[Newberry Library|The Newberry Library]] in [[Chicago]], a project that was not completed until 1911. Father Ximénez's transcription-translation of ''Popol Vuh'' was among Ayer's donated items.

Priest Ximénez's manuscript sank into obscurity until [[Adrián Recinos]] 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 S. Edmonson|Munro Edmonson]] and Carlos López attribute the first rediscovery to [[Walter Lehmann (ethnologist)|Walter Lehmann]] in 1928.<ref>Edmonson 1971 p. viii; Lopez 2007</ref> 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."

'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 synonym for the whole nation or tribe, as in 'Bible, book of Lord's people'.