Popol Vuh: Brasseur de Bourbourg’s 1861 Spanish translation

Record summary

The Popol Vuh is a K’iche’ Maya creation, migration and dynastic narrative preserved in a colonial-era manuscript and translated into Spanish by Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1861. It matters for comparison because its creator beings, hero twins, underworld episodes and flood-related material are sometimes compared with biblical or other religious traditions. The text is not a nineteenth-century eyewitness report, and its wording reflects Indigenous oral transmission, colonial writing and later editorial decisions. Researchers should distinguish the surviving manuscript, translation history and modern comparative interpretations.