Handbook for Priests 

This remarkable composite manuscript, in at least two Mayan languages as well as Latin and Spanish, was most likely created by Dominican priests working with Indian populations in the middle of the sixteenth century in the highlands of Guatemala. It contains a variety of materials in Kekchi and Quiché, including the lives of saints, religious instructions and hymns, guidance on marital arrangements, and the Church feast days. That such a book, destined for daily use, survived at all is extraordinarily rare. The bound manuscript, shown here with a document that was discovered tucked inside, provides a unique window into issues of cultural interaction and missionary practices during the early period of contact.

---