Francis Ximenez

A brief biography.

Francisco Ximénez (Jiménez) was born in Ecija de Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain, 23rd November 1666. He arrived in Guatemala on 4th February 1688, continued his studies in the priory of the Dominicans in  Guatemala Antigua, and received the priesthood in Ciudad  Real de Chiapas in 1699. In 1701 he was chaplain of the church of the Dominican priory in Chichicastenángo, founded in 1504.
He studied the languages and culture of the Quiché, Cakchiquel en Tzutuhil.
Through his interest in the culture and traditions of the Maya's, he won the confidence of the Maya's, and  - perhaps - the priest gives him the holy book Popol Vuh, with the sacred cosmogony of the Quiché Maya of Guatemala.
Ximénez transcribed the text in Latin characters with his own Spanish translation. In his master piece 'Tesoro de las Tres Lenguas', Ximénez published his translation in Latin characters of this book for the first time.
This work is preserved in the Newberry Library in Chicago and in this book was found the original of Ximenez's Popol Vuh.

He returned to Spain and died in 1729.

His other works:
Gramática de las lenguas Quiché, Caqchiquel, y Sutojilen que las dichas lenguas se traducen en la nuestra española, preserved in the Brancoft Library of  Berkeley, California.
El Perfecto Párroco.
Historia naturel del Reino de Guatemala, started 30th April 1722, only one tome.
Crónica de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapas y Guatemala.

Philately

Guatemala 1973, Mi 965, Sc 424
                 1975, Mi 1004, 1005; Sc 424, 425.
                 1978, Mi 1095, Sc 427.

This stamp is Mi 1004, Sc 424.

Illustrations from the Popol Vuh with text on 24 stamps:
Guatemala 1981, Mi 1166-1189; Sc C715-C738.

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