The Chilam Balam of Chumayel is the best documented single manuscript in the Chilam Balam corpus, compiled and copied by scribes of the Yucatec Maya town of Chumayel, most likely in the late eighteenth century though drawing on older material. It mixes dynastic and migration history, katun-cycle prophecy, medical and astrological texts, and Christian material absorbed after Spanish contact, and its relative completeness and the quality of Ralph Roys's 1933 English translation have made it the standard entry point most readers and scholars use for the wider genre, even though it represents only one town's version of a shared but never unified literary tradition.
Facts
Origins
Era of Compositionchiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya miscellanies 1 This entity is one of the nine known Books of Chilam Balam (Chumayel); the fetched article does not separately date the individual Chumayel manuscript beyond the collection-wide range recorded here. Era of CompositionThe surviving manuscript is generally dated to the late eighteenth century, though it is understood to preserve material copied and recopied from earlier colonial-era and possibly pre-conquest sources. 2 Attributed Author / CompilerNo single author; compiled and copied by successive unnamed scribes of the town of Chumayel over generations, drawing on material traditionally credited to the prophecies of a chilam balam (jaguar priest). 2 Text
Literary Form Transmission
Manuscript TraditionSurvives as a single manuscript in Yucatec Maya written in the Latin alphabet, now held among the collections of Princeton University; Ralph Roys's 1933 English translation remains the standard scholarly access point to its content. 2 Status
Canonical StatusA town chronicle and prophetic compilation rather than scripture in a liturgical sense, though it carries real religious and prophetic weight within the tradition that produced it. Structure
StructureA miscellany opening with a creation account and a chronicle of Maya history, followed by katun prophecies organized by the twenty year cycle alongside ritual and medical texts. 2 Connections
Associated With
This source names Yucatec Maya directly: "compiled and copied by scribes of the Yucatec Maya town of Chumayel, most likely in the late eighteenth century though drawing on older material."
Source The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Ralph L. Roys)Ralph L. Roys, translator
Originated In
Source Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Chilam Balam (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: Chilam Balam, lead sectionQuote, Wikipedia: Chilam Balam, lead section
The Books of Chilam Balam are handwritten, chiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept.
2. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Ralph L. Roys)
Ralph L. Roys, translator, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington DC, 1933
Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Wikipedia)
Originated In: Yucatan, LeadQuote, Originated In: Yucatan, Lead
named after the small Yucatec towns where they were orig
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.