![[Header Image] Digital scan of folio from Ayer ms 1515](https://www.johnwoodruff.com/wp-content/uploads/digital-scan-of-folio-from-ayer-ms-1515.jpg)
My doctoral dissertation presented the first edited collection of all four Ayer ms 1515 prologues. My hope is that making these prologue transcriptions available online will raise awareness of their contribution to Poppl Vuh’s textual and narrative meaning and spark investigations by other scholars.more ›
Disparities of Discourse in Popol Vuh
Conference Paper. Francisco Ximénez’s transcription and translation of Popol Vuh is not as straightforward and sterile as is generally presumed. The task requires intricate management of the textual and semiotic grids, both in the the Quiché transcription and in the Spanish translation.more ›
Rethinking the Context of Popol Vuh
Doctoral Dissertation. Although seventeenth-century Dominican priest Francisco Ximénez is credited for conservation of Popol Vuh, no critical attention is given to his personal agency and his ecclesiastical agenda. The oversight is particularly disconcerting where he plainly states in his prologue, “Esta mi obra, y trabaxo discurro q’ avra muchos q’ la tengan por la mas futil y vana de las q’ he trabaxado, asi lo pensaran muchos; y yo lo discurro al contrario, porq’ entiendo ser la mas util, y neçesaria.” My investigation is founded on answering the question: Why did Father Ximénez believe conservation of this text to be his crowning achievement? I answer this question by examining the four prologues of the Ayer manuscript to uncover Ximénez’s significant interaction with the text.more ›