Popol Vuh: What It Is, What It Tells, and the Manuscript in Chicago

The Popol Vuh is the creation account of the K’iche’ Maya, first written down in K’iche’ around 1550. The Newberry Library in Chicago holds the oldest surviving copy, transcribed in Chichicastenango between 1700 and 1715 by the Dominican priest Francisco Ximénez (1666-1729) and catalogued as Ayer MS 1515.

In short: The book tells the creation of the world, the deeds of the twin gods Hunahpú and Xbalanqué against the lords of death, the making of people from maize, and the history of the K’iche’ kings up to the Spanish conquest. The 16th-century original is lost. Ximénez’s copy sets the K’iche’ text beside a Spanish translation, left Guatemala after 1853, and has been at the Newberry since 1912. In Guatemala, the Museo Popol Vuh shows a facsimile donated by the Newberry in 2017. Guatemala declared it the national book on 30 May 1972.

What the book tells

The Museo Popol Vuh, which takes its name from the book, summarises it in two parts. The first is a mythological account of the creation of the world, followed by the adventures of the twin gods Hunahpú and Xbalanqué in primordial times, before human beings existed; their triumphs over the primordial forces and the gods of death lead to the creation of people from maize. The second part follows the origins of the ruling lineages of the K’iche’ kingdom: their migration to the Guatemalan highlands, their conquest of the territory, the founding of their main city and the history of their kings up to the Spanish conquest.

Universidad Francisco Marroquín’s news site divides it the same way into three large themes: the creation of the universe and of people, the hero twins and their journey to the underworld, and the history of the K’iche’ lineages from their origin to the conquest. The linguist James L. Mondloch, writing for the University Press of Colorado, carries the history to the Spanish invasion of Guatemala in 1524.

The Newberry describes the text as the creation account of the K’iche’ Maya, weaving together stories of cosmologies, origins, traditions and spiritual histories, and notes that many Maya consider it their equivalent of the Bible and hold it in deep reverence.

What the title means

The museum explains the mat: among Mesoamerican peoples, mats (esteras or petates) were symbols of royal authority and served as seats for rulers, high-ranking courtiers and lineage heads, which is why the title is translated as Book of the Council. The Newberry defines popol as woven mat and vuh (vuj) as book. The spelling Popol Wuj is also used, as in AGN’s 2026 coverage and in Mondloch and Robert Carmack’s Popol Wuj: Nueva Traducción y Comentarios (Universidad Mesoamericana, Guatemala, 2018).

How the text survived

The lost original. The museum says the 16th-century text is lost; it was in K’iche’ written with the Spanish alphabet, and its authors wrote that they did so because a book called Popol Vuh, which had existed in ancient times, could no longer be seen. That older book was probably a pictorial manuscript similar to the codices of central Mexico, the museum adds.

In Chichicastenango. The scholars Allen J. Christenson and Frauke Sachse, in the University Press of Colorado volume The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual, write that the 16th-century manuscript was taken from Santa Cruz del Quiché to the nearby town of Chuwila’, now Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, where Ximénez, the parish priest, obtained it between 1701 and 1704. Mondloch puts it at about 1702; the Newberry’s wider range is 1700 to 1715. Christenson and Sachse quote Ximénez saying he learned of it while he was in the parish of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango. They also say his copy has 56 double-sided folios in two columns, K’iche’ on the left and Spanish on the right; that he says he changed the spelling of the original; and that nobody knows what else he altered or left out. The Newberry adds that his K’iche’ transcription is studded with corrections, and that the text may have been recited, possibly by as many as three people, which would account for some of the repetition and strike-outs. The town today is covered on our Chichicastenango market guide.

How it reached Chicago. The Newberry says its copy left Guatemala sometime after 1853. The French priest Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg said he bought it from the Indigenous leader Ignacio Coloche in Rabinal in 1855, a claim the Newberry calls disputed; the Museo Popol Vuh instead says he took it from the library of the national university of Guatemala. After Brasseur’s death in 1874 his collection passed to Alphonse Pinart, who sold it in 1883; the Paris bookseller Charles Leclerc sold the manuscript to Edward E. Ayer in 1887. The Newberry dates its arrival to 1912; Christenson and Sachse say Ayer donated his collection in 1911.

Oldest, or possibly earliest. Christenson and Sachse call Ximénez’s manuscript the oldest version of the K’iche’ text that exists today. The Newberry is more careful, calling it “one of the most widely known and possibly the earliest surviving copy”.

Seeing the manuscript in Chicago or online

The Newberry catalogues the Popol Vuh together with other manuscripts by Ximénez as Ayer MS 1515. Its research guide, read 10 November 2026, sets these rules:

Where to see it in Guatemala

The Museo Popol Vuh of Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City says on its own site that it displays a facsimile copy donated in 2017 by the Newberry Library. It also holds a group of Classic-period painted Maya ceramics with gods and mythological scenes related to the Popol Vuh’s myths, painted, the museum says, 800 years before the text we know was written. Hours, prices and the combined ticket with the Ixchel museum are on our Guatemala City museums guide. The same university’s news site has published the Popol Vuh drawings of the Guatemalan artist Guillermo Grajeda Mena.

For a reader who wants the text, the museum’s own bibliography lists editions including Sam Colop’s Popol Vuh: Versión Poética K’iche’ (Cholsamaj, 1999) and Agustín Estrada Monroy’s 1973 facsimile edition of the Ximénez manuscript. More Guatemalan reading is on our books and films about Guatemala list, and the Maya day count is explained on our Cholq’ij calendar page.

Sources

All read 10 November 2026.

• Newberry Library: Popol Vuh research guide: translations of the title, the 1700-1715 transcription, provenance, Ayer MS 1515, viewing rules, digital access.
• Museo Popol Vuh (UFM): El Popol Vuh: content summary, c. 1550 date, unknown authors, meaning of the title, 2017 facsimile, bibliography.
• University Press of Colorado: Moyes, Christenson and Sachse (eds.), The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual, front matter and introduction (PDF): Chuwila’ and Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, 1701-1704, folios, provenance.
• University Press of Colorado: James L. Mondloch, The Conceptualization and Writing of Popol Wuj, 12 February 2019.
• UFM Noticias: El Popol Vuh, ilustraciones de Guillermo Grajeda Mena, June 2020: three themes.
• AGN: Conmemoran el Día Nacional del Popol Vuh, 30 May 2024: 1972 national book, Acuerdo Ministerial 826-2012.
• AGN: Día Nacional del Popol Wuj, 31 May 2026: 1972 and 2012 declarations, the Popol Wuj spelling.