Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Maya Manuscript and Visionary Traditions

Record summary

Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg published influential nineteenth-century editions and translations concerning Maya texts and traditions, including the Popol Vuh and Rabinal Achí. These materials contain creation narratives, dreams, sacred knowledge, and encounters with other-than-human beings, making them useful for comparing textual representations of altered consciousness. They are not incident reports, and Brasseur’s translations and theories—especially his speculative claims about Maya writing—remain contested. Researchers should compare his editions with later critical texts and surviving Indigenous-language or colonial manuscripts.