POPOL VUH. - The P. V. (= national book) may be considered the Bible of the Maya Quiché (v. MAYA, religion of). It treats of cosmogony, religion, mythology, traditions of migrations, and narratives of historical events of the Quiché.
It is written in Latin characters, with the addition of some special signs. It was first discovered, toward the end of the 18th century, by Francisco Ximénez at Chichicastenango (hence it is also called the «Chichicastenango manuscript»), though it should not be confused with another manuscript of the same name. The natives kept it jealously and secretly guarded, and held it in almost religious veneration.
The first editions were made by C. Scherzer (1854) and by Abbot Brasseur de Bourbourg (1861). Among the more recent editions are those of Georges Raynaud (*Les dieux, les héros et les hommes de l'ancien Guatemala, d'après le livre du Conseil-P. V.*, Paris 1925); of Antonio Villacorta and Flavio Rodas (*Manuscrito de Chichicastenango-Popul Buj, estudio sobre las antiguas tradiciones de pueblo Quiché*, Guatemala 1927).
No edition has been made in Italian.