Editing Popol Vuh (section)

===Father Ximénez's source===
{{multiple image
   | width     = 109
   | footer    = Father Ximénez's manuscript contains the oldest known text of ''Popol Vuh''. It is mostly written in parallel Kʼicheʼ and Spanish as in the front and rear of the first folio pictured here.
   | image1    = Empiezan las historias(titlepage).jpg
   | alt1      = Title page
   | image2    = Empiezan las historias(preamble).jpg
   | alt2      = Preamble
   | image3    = Empiezan las historias(Popol vuh).jpg
   | alt3      = Creation
}}
It is generally believed that Ximénez borrowed a phonetic manuscript from a parishioner for his source, although Néstor Quiroa points out that "such a manuscript has never been found, and thus Ximenez's work represents the only source for scholarly studies."<ref>Quiroa, "Ideology" 282)</ref> This document would have been a phonetic rendering of an oral recitation performed in or around [[Santa Cruz del Quiché]] shortly following [[Pedro de Alvarado|Pedro de Alvarado's]] 1524 conquest. By comparing the genealogy at the end of ''Popol Vuh'' with dated colonial records, Adrián Recinos and [[Dennis Tedlock]] suggest a date between 1554 and 1558.<ref>Recinos 30–31 (1947); Goetz 22–23 (1950); Tedlock 56 (1996)</ref> But to the extent that the text speaks of a "written" document, Woodruff cautions that "critics appear to have taken the text of the first folio recto too much at face value in drawing conclusions about ''Popol Vuh''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s survival."<ref>Woodruff, "Ma(r)king Popol Vuh" 104</ref> If there was an early post-conquest document, one theory (first proposed by Rudolf Schuller) ascribes the phonetic authorship to Diego Reynoso, one of the signatories of the ''[[Título de Totonicapán]]''.<ref>Recinos 34; Goetz 27; see also Akkeren 2003 and Tedlock 1996.</ref> Another possible author could have been Don Cristóbal Velasco, who, also in ''Titulo de Totonicapán'', is listed as "Nim Chokoh Cavec" ('Great Steward of the Kaweq').<ref>Christenson 2004</ref><ref>After the list of rulers, the narrative recounts that the three Great Stewards of the principal ruling Kʼicheʼ lineages were "the mothers of the word, and the fathers of the word"; and the "word" has been interpreted by some to mean the ''Popol Vuh'' itself.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} Since a prominent place is given to the Kaweq lineage at the end of ''Popol Vuh'', the author / scribe / narrator / storyteller may have belonged to this lineage as opposed to another Kʼicheʼ lineage.</ref> In either case, the colonial presence is clear in ''Popol Vuh''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s preamble: "This we shall write now under the Law of God and Christianity; we shall bring it to light because now the ''Popol Vuh'', as it is called, cannot be seen any more, in which was clearly seen the coming from the other side of the sea and the narration of our obscurity, and our life was clearly seen."<ref>Goetz 79–80</ref> Accordingly, the need to "preserve" the content presupposes an imminent disappearance of the content, and therefore, Edmonson theorized a pre-conquest glyphic codex. No evidence of such a codex has yet been found.

A minority, however, disputes the existence of pre-Ximénez texts on the same basis that is used to argue their existence. Both positions are based on two statements by Ximénez. The first of these comes from ''Historia de la provincia'' where Ximénez writes that he found various texts during his curacy of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango that were guarded with such secrecy "that not even a trace of it was revealed among the elder ministers" although "almost all of them have it memorized."<ref>"y así determiné el trasuntar de verbo ad verbum todas sus historias como las traduje en nuestra lengua castellana de la lengua quiché, en que las hallé escritas desde el tiempo de la conquista, que entonces (como allí dicen), las redujeron de su modo de escribir al nuestro; pero fue con todo sigilo que conservó entre ellos con tanto secreto, que ni memoria se hacía entre los ministros antiguos de tal cosa, e indagando yo aqueste punto, estando en el curato de Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, hallé que era la doctrina que primero mamaban con la leche y que todos ellos casi lo tienen de memoria y descubrí que de aquestos libros tenían muchos entre sí [...]" (Ximenez 1999 p. 73; English translation by WP contributor)</ref> The second passage used to argue pre-Ximénez texts comes from Ximénez's addendum to ''Popol Vuh''. There he states that many of the natives' practices can be "seen in a book that they have, something like a prophecy, from the beginning of their [pre-Christian] days, where they have all the months and signs corresponding to each day, one of which I have in my possession."<ref>"Y esto lo ven en un libro que tienen como pronostico desde el tiempo de su gentilidad, donde tienen todos los meses y signos correspondientes á cada dia, que uno de ellos tengo en mi poder" (Scherzer 1857; English translation by WP contributor). This passage is found in ''Escolios a las historias'' as appearing on p. 160 of Scherzer's edition.</ref> Scherzer explains in a footnote that what Ximénez is referencing "is only a secret calendar" and that he himself had "found this rustic calendar previously in various indigenous towns in the Guatemalan highlands" during his travels with Wagner.<ref>"El libro que el padre Ximenez menciona, no es mas que una formula cabalistica, segun la cual los adivinos engañadores pretendían pronosticar y explicar ciertos eventos. Yo encontré este calendario gentilico ya en diversos pueblos de indios en los altos de Guatemala."</ref> This presents a contradiction because the item which Ximénez has in his possession is not ''Popol Vuh'', and a carefully guarded item is not likely to have been easily available to Ximénez. Apart from this, Woodruff surmises that because "Ximenez never discloses his source, instead inviting readers to infer what they wish [. . .], it is plausible that there was no such alphabetic redaction among the Indians. The implied alternative is that he or another missionary made the first written text from an oral recitation."<ref>Woodruff 104</ref>