Popol Vuh: Las Antiguas Historias del Quiché

Recinos, Adrián, (traductor), Popol Vuh: Las Antiguas Historias del Quiché, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1953.

Popol Vuh is a cultural narrative that recounts the mythology and history of the K'iche' people who inhabit the Guatemalan Highlands northwest of present-day Guatemala City. The Popol Vuh is a creation narrative written by the K'iche' people before the Spanish conquest of Guatemala,[2] originally preserved through oral tradition[3] until approximately 1550 when it was written down.[4] The survival of the Popol Vuh is credited to the 18th century Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez who made a copy of the original text in Spanish[3] The name "Popol Vuh" translates as "Book of the Community", "Book of Counsel", or more literally as "Book of the People".[5][6] The Popol Vuh includes the Mayan creation myth, beginning with the exploits of the Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué.[7] As with similar texts (Chilam Balam, being one example), a great deal of the Popol Vuh's significance lies in the scarcity of early accounts dealing with Mesoamerican mythologies due to the purging of documents by the Spanish Conquistadors. (…)Since Brasseur's and Scherzer's first editions, the Popol Vuh has been translated into many other languages besides its original K'iche'.[37] The Spanish edition by Adrián Recinos is still a major reference, as is Recino's English translation by Delia Goetz.

Adrián Recinos (1886–1962)[1] was a Guatemalan historian, essayist, Mayanist scholar and translator, and diplomat. Recinos was a great student of national history, mainly of the Maya civilization and the ancient history of the K'iche' and Kaqchikel people. It was he who made the first edition in Spanish of the Popol Vuh, based on his translation of the manuscript found in the Newberry Library, Chicago, the United States. He also published his translations of other ancient Mayan manuscripts, including the Anales de los Cakchiqueles.