Books of Chilam Balam and nineteenth-century Yucatec publication

Record summary

The Books of Chilam Balam are a group of Maya-language colonial manuscripts containing calendrical material, prophecy, mythology, historical notices and Christian-influenced passages. The Chumayel manuscript became especially important to nineteenth-century collectors and scholars studying Yucatec religion. It is a useful comparison lead because later readers have interpreted its katun prophecies as predictions of conquest, apocalypse or modern events. The texts are composite, manuscript-based and difficult to date as unified works; translation, selective quotation and retrospective interpretation substantially affect what any passage appears to say.