Carl Scherzer’s Occupation

Carl Scherzer was never a physician. At least one source suggests that Scherzer was a lawyer, but his only documented employment was as a printer and as a statesman. The misconception that Scherzer was a physician flows from Scherzer’s self-assumed honorific in his 1857 edition of Popol Vuh and possibly began with Recinos’ 1947 Spanish edition and his 1950 English translation.

Title page of Las historias del orígen de los indios edited by Carl Scherzer (Vienna Imprint)
Scherzer’s 1857 Edition (Vienna imprint)
Title page of Las historias del orígen de los indios edited by Carl Scherzer (London imprint)
Scherzer’s 1857 edition (London Imprint)

References

Woodruff, John M. The “most futile and vain” Work of Father Francisco Ximénez: Rethinking the Context of Popol Vuh. Diss. U. Alabama, 2009.

Comments