Mayan Dresden Codex
The Collector's Edition
The Mayan civilization began two thousands years before the birth of Christ, peaked between A.D. 250 and 900, and began its decline before the Americas were “discovered” by the Europeans in the early 1500s. All in all, the Mayan civilization spanned 3,000 years!
During their civilization, the Mayans developed sophisticated knowledge of the sciences, mathematics, and medicine. That knowledge was passed down via written language, in the form of glyphs.
Mayan Codices
The Mayan codices are hand-scribed books that have covers made of jaguar skin, paper made from fig-bark, and are folded like an accordion. These books are how the Mayans recorded and passed on knowledge important to them.
Unfortunately, because of the cultural ignorance and prejudices of the Catholic Church, only a few Mayan codices escaped destruction. The four known surviving ones, named for the cities where they eventually ended up, are: Grolier, Madrid, Paris, and Dresden.
The contents of theses remaining four codices are about astronomy, astrology, religion, rituals, and a few Mayan gods. The earliest (and in the best condition) is the Dresden Codex, currently part of the collections of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek (SLUB) state library in Dresden, Germany, and the one which we’ll be diving into in more detail.
Dresden Codex
Last April we wrote about the amazing book “The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization” from the imaginations of Vsevolod Batischev and Timur Kadyrov. RainyDayMagazine readers have been offering up suggestions of similarly fascinating works that they thought we should check out.
Many of those suggestions resonated strongly. So strongly, in fact, that instead of reviewing these scholarly works online, we chose to find quality reproductions of them so that we that could appreciate them in their physical forms.
The first one we’ll be looking at is the Mayan Dresden Codex.
Excellent packaging, and not giving away a single clue about how stunning its content is.
We chose to examine the reproduction created by The Galobart Books. Their specialty is fine production of limited editions of books, and their Mayan Dresden Codex is especially fine.
FirstLook
There is a large body of work pertaining to the Dresden Codex and we encourage readers to reference those scholarly works for the original images, translation, meanings, and significance of the content.
What we want to share in this FirstLook are our thoughts on Galobart Books’ reproduction of the Codex itself.
The Codex reproduction consists of all 10 chapters:
- Introduction (presentation of the 20 most important gods, sacrifices, etc.);
- Almanacs of the gods, diseases, cures, etc.;
- Table of Venus;
- Table of solar and lunar eclipses;
- Table of multiplying by the number 78 (the reason for making it with this number is unknown);
- Table of K’atun (20 year periods with which the times of droughts and earthquakes were calculated);
- Serpent numbers and pillars of the universe (the same words used in the inscriptions of the classic period in the Mayan cities of Palenque and Tikal);
- The great flood (representation of a disaster);
- Ceremonies of the beginning of the new year; and
- Almanaque for agriculture.
The Case
The display case is handmade and consists of two 2 cm-thick acrylic plates. The two plates are held together by four gold-plated screws. Each reproduction is numbered with a gold plate from 0001 to 1739.
Why 1739? We are not certain, but we would guess it’s an homage to the manuscript being purchased for the Dresden court library in 1739 in Vienna, as a “Mexican book.”
Very serious, and we were a little bit stunned at how honored we were to receive this edition.
Two reproductions: one original, one enhanced
Each reproduction has the same 78 sheets. The original version is a faithful copy of the codex. The enhanced version has been retouched and colored in order to bring out more detail.
One to see exactly what the original looked like, the other to help readers understand the original.
Additional items in the case
- A tool for opening the case;
- A companion book on the Dresden Codex; and
- A guide for approaching the Codex.
This codex is very complex, with a lot of details, so it was good to have tools to help us understand it.
Details of the Codex
The Codex is folded in the same accordion method as per the original. When fully opened/extended, it is 3.56 meters (11.67 feet) long!
The Mayan script and phonetic system, with more than 800 characters, was the only true pre-Columbian writing system in the Americas. The signs are recognizable representations of people, animals, and everyday objects…a lot like emojis and icons we use in our everyday texting.
Can’t help feeling that it almost looks like a newspaper (both are very dense, information-wise).
Having the original and the enhanced versions opened side-by-side is a fascinating way to enjoy the codex. The comparison enables a clearer, better, and greater appreciation of the details of the codex.
Original pages on the left, clarified versions on the right (these photos don’t do justice to how helpful the clarified version is).
For a long time, with the exception of names and numbers, the meanings of the glyphs were out of reach to everyone who was trying to extract their secrets.
The enlightenment didn’t come until the mid-1900. The Russian linguist Yury Knorozov figured out that the Mayan system was not just hieroglyphic, but also phonetic. His work opened up the floodgates to new understandings of the language, and created a new appreciation of the depth and complexity of the Mayan civilization.
The Mayans had a lot to say, in many ways, to each other.
By the 1980s, about 80% of Maya writing could be read out loud and 60% of the glyphs’ meaning was understood (with varying degrees of certainty). Today, the majority of glyphs can now be read. Maya schoolchildren are being taught who their ancestors were, the history of their civilization, along with the glyphs.
They made the codex as clear as they could make it, taking into consideration how damaged the original was.
Final Thoughts
Reading about something historical can bring history to life. Physically holding a reproduction of a piece of history can enhance that history, and provide a deeper sense of what it (the world, the people, the ideas) was like when the original was being used..
This reproduction of the Mayan Dresden Codex was done with quality materials, attention to details, and excellent craftsmanship. Get yourself a copy, step back in time, into history, and enjoy.
We hope to follow this look with more amazing reproductions from the Galobart Books folks later in the year. We know what we would like to see, but absolutely let us know what will be of interest and we’ll see what we can arrange!!!
Links to items mentioned:
Leave a comment