Acknowledgements
I would firstly like to thank Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Puebla, for funding the translation of the Chilam Balam of Ixil into English, campus director Juan Alberto Paredes and deputy director Juan de Dios Guerrero, for all of their assistance and support that enabled me to carry out the research required for this revised and updated English edition.
This book was only possible thanks to the permission granted by the National Library of Anthropology and History and its director Baltazar Brito Guadarrama for us to reproduce the facsimile of the Ixil, the original copy of which is kept in one of its important collections. I am also indebted to the head of the Library’s IT department, Miguel Ángel Gasca Gómez, who was unfailingly patient and helpful with all the technical and administrative procedures.
The Public Library of Córdoba in Spain also provided us invaluable access to Chaves and Zamorano’s Reportorios de los Tiempos and other vital books in their collection, including digital copies of some volumes. The Franciscan library of the University of the Americas Puebla and the Franciscan Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico also kindly allowed us to consult their magnificent archives, enabling us to revise early editions of the Vulgate in its Spanish-language version.
I am enormously grateful to Mario Aliphat Fernández for agreeing to participate in this project with his study of the Maya calendars, and the complex correlations the Maya established during the colonial period with Western calendars. He also provided knowledgeable advice on identifying the plants, insects and animals mentioned in the Ixil.
I am delighted by Brill’s interest in publishing the Chilam Balam of Ixil in English after Michiel Thijssen kindly introduced me to Jason Prevost, acquisitions editor for History and American Studies titles. Gerda Danielsson Coe and Evelien van der Veer have both also been very helpful and enthusiastic in coordinating the publication process.
Special thanks are due to Quentin Pope for having taken on the challenge of translating my Spanish text into English. His close reading and excellent translation have helped us to review and to make the necessary adjustments and improvements to the text. And last but not least, I am sincerely grateful to Leonardo Vázquez Conde, a good friend and extremely talented graphic designer who helped us so generously by creating the typographic design for the Ixil.