Who found the Dresden Codex?
The codex was acquired by the Saxon State Library, Dresden, Saxony, and was published by Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, in Antiquities of Mexico (1830–48). King erroneously attributed the codex to the Aztecs. The first scientific edition of the codex was made by E. Förstemann (Leipzig, 1880).
What does the Mayan codex say?
The pages of the codices usually depict a deity and include a series of glyphs describing what the deity is doing. Many pages of these books also contain lists of numbers that allowed the Maya to predict lunar and solar eclipses, the phases of the moon, and movements of Mars and Venus.
What is depicted on the last page of the Dresden Codex?
74 of the Dresden Codex depicts a torrential downpour probably associated with a destructive flood (Thompson, 1972). The impact of climate change on the development and disintegration of Maya civilisation has long been debated.
What is the oldest Mayan codex?
Mexico Maya Codex was made between 1021 and 1154 A.D. Mexico's National Institute of History and Anthropology said the calendar-style text was made between 1021 and 1154 A.D. and is the oldest known pre-Hispanic document. The 10 surviving pages of the tree-bark folding "book" will now be known as the Mexico Maya Codex.
What is special about the Dresden Codex?
The Dresden Codex contains accurate astronomical tables, which are recognized by students of the codex for its detailed Venus tables and lunar tables.
Why is the Dresden Codex important?
"The Dresden Codex contains astronomical tables of outstanding accuracy. Contained in the codex are almanacs, astronomical and astrological tables, and religious references. The specific god references have to do with a 260 day ritual count divided up in several ways.
Why did the Spanish destroy Mayan books?
Having determined that the precious and zealously guarded Mayan books he had been shown with great pride—precisely because of his evident empathy—contained “nothing in which there was not to be seen superstition and lies of the devil,” he ordered all of the books to be burned “…which [the Maya] regretted to an amazing ...
Who wrote the Aztec codex?
Codex Florentine is a set of 12 books created under the supervision of Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún between approximately 1540 and 1576.
Why is the Mayan codex important?
The glyphs show roughly 40 times in the text, making eclipses a major focus of the Dresden Codex. The first 52 pages of the Dresden Codex are about divination. The Mayan astronomers would use the codex for day keeping, but also determining the cause of sickness and other misfortunes.
What is the difference between Madrid Codex and the Dresden Codex?
The Dresden Codex was the first rediscovered by Johann Christian Götze, director of the Royal Library at Dresden. The next reappeared in Paris. In Spain, the Museo de America de Madrid acquired two codices, but they were both parts of the same text. The combined codex was then named the Madrid Codex.
Who destroyed Mayan records?
Diego de LandaDiego de Landa, a Spanish bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán, burned most of the Mayan codices. 1524-1579.
What did the Mayans believe man was created from?
The deities tried another time, and created humans from wood. But the wooden people could not worship either, so they were destroyed. Those that survived are said to have become the monkeys in the trees. The sky and Earth now existed, but there was no Sun and no Moon.
Overview
The Dresden Codex is a Maya book, which was believed to be the oldest surviving book written in the Americas, dating to the 11th or 12th century. However, in September 2018 it was proven that the Maya Codex of Mexico, previously known as the Grolier Codex, is, in fact, older by about a century. The codex was rediscovered in the city of Dresden, Germany, hence the book's pres…
Description
The Dresden Codex contains 78 pages with decorative board covers on the front and back. Most pages have writing on both sides. They have a border of red paint, although many have lost this framing due to age deterioration. The pages are generally divided into three sections; students of the codex have arbitrarily labeled these sections a, b, and c. Some pages have just two horizontal sectio…
History
The Dresden Codex is described by historian J. Eric S. Thompson as writings of the indigenous people of the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico. Maya historians Peter J. Schmidt, Mercedes de la Garza, and Enrique Nalda confirm this. Thompson further narrows the probable origin of the Dresden Codex to the area of Chichen Itza, because certain picture symbols in the codex are only fou…
Deterioration and pagination
Italian artist and engraver Agostino Aglio, starting in 1826, became the first to transcribe and illustrate the codex completely for Lord Kingsborough, who published it in his nine volumes of Antiquities of Mexico in 1831–1848. The codex then had some damage due to handling, sunlight, and moisture. It received direct water damage that was significantly destructive from being ke…
See also
• Aztec codices
• Popol Vuh
Bibliography
• American Anthropologist (1891). American Anthropologist. American Anthropological Association.
• Anzovin, Steven (1 January 2000). Famous First Facts, International Edition: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in World History. H.W. Wilson. ISBN 978-0-8242-0958-2. Item 3342 - The first book written in the Americas known to historians is the Dresden Codex.
Further reading
• Bricker, V.R. (2007). Literary continuities across the transformation from Maya hieroglyphic to alphabetical writing. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 151(1), 27-42.
• Houston, Stephen D. (2001) - The Decipherment of Ancient Maya Writing, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0-8061-3204-4
External links
Media related to Dresden Codex at Wikimedia Commons
• The complete codex (high resolution PDF)
• Facsimiles of the codex at the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., with PDF downloads
• The Dresden Codex Lunar Series and Sidereal Astronomy