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Maya codices (sg.: codex) are folding books written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark paper. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of deities such as the Tonsured Maize God and the Howler Monkey Gods .
The Maya Codex of Mexico (MCM) is a Maya screenfold codex manuscript of a pre-Columbian type. Long known as the Grolier Codex or Sáenz Codex, in 2018 it was officially renamed the Códice Maya de México [1] (CMM) by the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico.
During the 19th century, the word 'codex' became popular to designate any pictorial manuscript in the Mesoamerican tradition. In reality, pre-Columbian manuscripts are, strictly speaking, not codices, since the strict librarian usage of the word denotes manuscript books made of vellum, papyrus and other materials besides paper, that have been sewn on one side. [1]
The Dresden Codex is one of four hieroglyphic Maya codices that survived the Spanish Inquisition in the New World. [9] Three, the Dresden, Madrid, and Paris codices, are named after the city where they were ultimately rediscovered. [9] [10] The fourth is the Grolier Codex, located at the Grolier Club in New York City. [11]
During the ceremony on July 12, 1562, a disputed number of Maya codices (according to Landa, 27 books) and approximately 5,000 Maya cult images were burned. Only three pre-Columbian books of Maya hieroglyphics (also known as a codex) and fragments of a fourth [4] [5] [6] are known to have survived. Collectively, the works are known as the Maya ...
The Maya codices, in contrast, are composed of a long strip of bark paper, or Amate, folded in the same accordion-like, screen-fold way as the Codex Borgia group. The most important codices were likely adorned with jaguar fur covers, although there is only documentational evidence of this.
Much of what is known from Maya culture is gathered from these books. Maya codices contain glyph like imagery that is related to deities, sacrifices, rituals, moon phases, planet movements, and calendars. [56] Three codices that are considered legitimate are the Dresden, Madrid, and Paris Codices. These codices all feature depictions of human ...
The codex also contains astronomical tables, although fewer than those in the other three surviving Maya codices. [9] Some of the content is likely to have been copied from older Maya books. [10] Included in the codex is a description of the New Year ceremony. [11]