Codex Tro-Cortesianus
The Codex Tro-Cortesianus (also Codex Madrid ) is a famous manuscript in the Maya script , which was probably made in the early 16th century before the Spanish conquest of Central America . It is now kept in the Museo de América in Madrid .
Physical description
The codex is a folding book with 112 pages (56 sheets) made of Amatl paper, which is additionally covered with a fine stucco layer. With a side height of 22.6 centimeters and a length of 6.82 meters, it is the longest of the four Maya codices that have survived. The other three manuscripts are the Dresden Codex ( Codex Dresdensis ), the Paris Codex ( Codex Peresianus ), and the (formerly controversial) Mexico Maya Codex ( Codex Grolier ).
Provenance
Discovery story
The manuscript was discovered in two parts in different locations in Spain in the 1860s. One part, the Codex Troanus , was owned by Juan de Tro y Ortolano and comprised pages 22 to 56 and 78 to 112. The other part, the Codex Cortesianus , contained the remaining pages. It was not until 1880 that the French researcher Léon de Rosny realized that both codices must originally have been parts of the same manuscript. Instead of the older name “Codex Tro-Cortesianus”, only the “Codex Madrid” is used today.
Original origin
Among the clearly recognizable calendar dates in Codex Madrid, on page 5, the mention of a solar eclipse in the year 722 can be made out, which is also recorded in (contemporary) stone inscriptions of the Classical Maya culture and the Dresden Codex. Most of the dates, however, fall into the 15th century; the last date corresponds to the year 1503. A comparison of the represented material culture (ceramic drums or rattles that were used for ritual purposes) also showed an exact match with archaeological artefacts from the 15th century.
At a later point in time, a piece of European paper folded several times was inserted on page 56 (presumably for repair purposes), which can be assigned to the late 16th century due to the still recognizable content and the type of handwriting used. It is currently believed that the manuscript was confiscated from the property of a Mayan priest around 1600 by the Spanish priest Pedro de Sánchez y Aguilar in the northwest of the Yucatan peninsula, and then with the visit of Sánchez de Aguilar to Madrid in 1618 to the Spanish royal court got.
content
The Madrid manuscript contains tables, instructions for religious ceremonies, almanacs and astronomical tables (tables of Venus ). It allows insights into the religious life of the Maya. It contains an eleven-page section dealing with beekeeping. Numerous illustrations show religious practices, human sacrifices and many everyday scenes such as weaving, hunting and warfare. Presumably the book was used for astrological prophecies and allowed the best dates for sowing and harvesting and the time for sacrificial rituals to be determined.
Cultural meaning
The stylistic and content-related deviations within the Madrid Codex, which can be proven compared to the older, supposedly “more original” Codices in Paris and Dresden, were previously interpreted as a watered-down product of a decadent era in which the traditional Mayan culture even before the arrival of the Spaniard was dying. More recent research, on the other hand, consistently emphasizes the syncretistic and thus thoroughly dynamic character of the manuscript. On the one hand, this can be seen in the close reference to the central Mexican codices of the Borgia group of the 15th century. On the other hand, the addition of a European text on p. 56 (whether for purely practical or religious reasons) proves that traditional texts were actively used long after the supposed conquest and proselytizing of the Yucatan, and that they existed parallel to the Spanish-dominated colonial culture.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nikolai Grube : The Dresden Maya Calendar: The Complete Codex . Verlag Herder, Freiburg, 2012, ISBN 978-345-1333323 , p. 22.
- ↑ a b Gabrielle Vail, Victoria R. Bricker (compilers), Anthony F. Aveni, Harvey M. Bricker, John F. Chuchiak, Christine L. Hernández, Bryan R. Just, Martha J. Macri and Merideth Paxton: New Perspectives on the Codex Madrid . Current Anthropology 44 (2003), Supplement: pp. 105-112 .
- ↑ Matthias Gorissen: The Codex Madrid . Adventure Archeology 3/2004, pp. 70–75.