Paris Codex

The Paris Codex is called Codex Pérez. In addition, people know this book as the Codex Peresianus. It is one of the three pre-Columbian Maya books that are still surviving, dating to 900–1521 AD, which is the postclassic period of the chronology called "Mesoamerican." It was a part of the larger codex. However, only the current fragments of it remain which makes it the shortest of the four codices. The preservation of the document wasn't done properly, because of which the corners of all pages got damaged. As a result, some of the text was lost. This codex is related to a cycle of thirteen 20-year kʼatuns and covers information related to Maya astronomical signs.

People believe that the Paris Codex is painted in western Yucatán, at Mayapan. AD 1200–1525 is considered the late postclassic period. Around 1450, it has been dated. However, recently, an earlier date of 1185 was suggested by placing the document in early postclassic. AD 900–1200 is considered the period of early postclassic. The information about astronomy and the calendar in this codex remained consistent during the period from AD 731 to 987. This period was considered a Classic period cycle. It means that the codex is a copy of a much earlier document. The Bibliothèque Royale of Paris got it in 1832. Now, it is held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris and it is in the Département des Manuscrits.

What Is The Paris Codex?

Paris Codex is a Maya manuscript made in the mid-fifteenth century. It is a screen-fold manuscript book made of amate paper. This codex originated from the Mayapán region of Yucatán, located in Mexico. Possibly, it is a copy of a book that dates from the classic period of Mesoamerican civilization.

It is assumed that this codex was in use during the Spanish arrival in the Yucatán in the early stage of the 16th century. This book describes almanacs and ritual calendars. Moreover, it contains astronomical data and some tools for prognostication.

More Information About Paris Codex:

The devotion of the codex is to the Mayan ritual. Also, it is devoted to the ceremony, which is held with the purpose of celebrating the end of a 20-year period. The Paris codex is fragmentary. Paper from tree bark is used to compose it. This codex looks like a long strip.  There are a total of eleven individual leaves containing 22 pages of columns where you can see images and glyphs of gods. Additionally, you will get to see the set of year-bearers in this codex that can give a hint to the date when it was created: a period between the Mayan history's Classic and Conquest periods.

The manuscript consists of eleven panels, most of which are painted on both sides. Once the book is unfolded, it will extend to 138 cm. However, two panels i.e. four pages are lost. This book is popular for its illustrated constellation pages.

Discovery Of Paris Codex:

In 1859, people started knowing about this codex when Léon de Rosny found it in a basket containing old papers. He saw this basket in the chimney's corner in the Bibliothèque Impériale in Paris. Scholars tested the codex around 25 years ago and cataloged this. When this document was found, it had a piece of paper that attributed it to the colonial Maya documents collection that Juan Pío Pérez gathered.

Time Reconning And Prognostication:

This one is a holy book of divination, just like the other surviving Maya books, including the Codex Dresden and the Codex Madrid. This screenfold shows some katuns, which refer to the recording history measurement unit of Maya. You can see the image of Lord of the Katun on all the pages of the document. It also contains glyphs to represent auguries and time periods. The reverse has information related to maize crop yields and the prognostication of rainfall. Additionally, it includes information about spirit forces. To conclude the manuscript, two pages are used, which showcase 13 constellations of the Maya sky.

Style Reflecting Yucatán Visual Tradition:

In this book, you can see images following the style of the East coast of Tulum, Tancah, Cobá, and Mayapán. Textual content as well as formal arrangement aspects help to recall those of the Mayapán stela that contains katuns. You can see aesthetic similarities in the wall paintings' rendering at Tancah, Cobá, and Tulum.

From Yucatán To Europe:

The accurate path that the codex travelled between Mexico and Europe is still not known to people. It is assumed that Paris Codex was available in a private collection before its arrival in Paris. This book got its nickname “Codex Peresianus” in the middle of the 19th century from a now lost paper wrapper around, on which "Pérez" was written.

Content Of Paris Codex:

The nature of this codex's content is ritual. In its one part, patron deities and some related rituals for a cycle of thirteen kʼatuns are described. Another fragment elaborated animals that represent the signs of astronomy and ecliptic, like a scorpion and a peccary. Moreover, you can see an image of the fragments of Maya "zodiac" on the two pages of this book. Annotations that are made with Latin characters are used to mark some of its pages.

On one side of this book, every page's normal format follows the same arrangement. You can see a standing depiction at the left hand side on every page. Along with this, you get to see a seated drawing on each page's right side. Every page contains the Ajaw Day glyph and is combined with a numerical coefficient to represent a date that marks a calendrical cycle's last day. The preservation of the document was not done properly, resulting in some text being lost. Fortunately, some texts survived that helped to demonstrate this document's major dates series correspond to the ending of kʼatun that helped in the construction of a few lost date glyphs again in the text. You can see seated figures here that are linked to a sidereal glyph. It means that these figures represent every kʼatun's ruling deity.

You can see two pages in the codex mentioning the days of the tzolkʼin 260-day cycle, which corresponds to the start of every solar year over fifty-two years. In the last two pages, you can see the drawing of a series of thirteen animals that represent the "zodiac". As per the conclusion of the document's modern studies, the end of the zodiac cycle represents a predilection to Mayan fatalism psychologically. According to this, the end of the Mayan Classic Period could be the outcome of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Origin Of Paris Codex:

This codex is expected to be made in Yucatán like the other two generally accepted codices. J. Eric S. Thompson, who is an English Mayanist, thought that the codex was painted in western Yucatán and dated between AD 1250 and 1450. Bruce Love saw similarities between a scene on the codex's 11th page and Stela 1 at Mayapan. Depending on this, he said that this codex was produced In Mayapan, around 1450.

The Bottom Line:

In this article, we have discussed Paris Codex in detail, which is one of the three surviving pre-columbian Maya books. For further queries, feel free to ask us via comments. We are always here to guide you and answer your queries.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where is the Paris Codex?

The Bibliothèque Royale of Paris acquired this codex in 1832. At present, it is held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, in the Département des Manuscrits.

2. How many codices survive today?

Only three or four Maya codices have survived. 

3. What does codex mean?

Codex refers to an ancient book with some stacked pages, which are hand-written.

Madrid Codex

Madrid Codex is called the Tro-Cortesianus Codex or the Troano Codex. This is one of three surviving Maya books of the pre-Columbian period, circa 900–1521 AD, around the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology. In 1965, Grolier Codex, a fourth codex, was founded. It is held in Madrid by the Museo de América. Besides, it believes that the codex is vital in its collection. Although you should know that the original version is not displayed as it is in fragile condition, an exact reproduction is in display instead.

Once, the Maya Madrid codex was categorized into two pieces- "Codex Troano" and "Codex Cortesianus." Then, an ethnologist named Leon de Rosny realized in the 1880s that both pieces belonged together. He helped to combine these pieces into one text which was later brought to Madrid. Later, it was named "Madrid Codex".

Physical Characteristics of Madrid Codex:

People used amate paper in a long strip to create codex. The paper was folded up accordion-style and then coated using a stucco of a thin layer. Usually, people use it as a painting surface. There is an entire document, the whole Madrid codex, containing 56 sheets, and these are painted on both sides to make a total of 112 pages. Hence, the Troano is the bigger portion which has seventy pages including 22–56 and 78–112. The name came from Juan Tro y Ortolano.

The Cortesianus Codex contains the remaining 42 pages, which are pages 1–21 and 57–77. Every page has a measurement of roughly 23.2 × 12.2 centimetres (9.1 by 4.8 in).

Madrid Codex Content:

It is a very long surviving Maya codice the content of which is made up of almanacs and horoscopes. These are useful for Maya priests in ceremonies and divinatory rituals. It has astronomical tables, but the number is lesser than the three surviving Maya codices. A few contents are expected to be copied from older Maya books.

Coe and Kerr suggested that there was only one scribe behind the work as the codex is stylistically uniform. But after a close analysis of glyphic elements, it was believed that many scribes were involved in its production. It was assumed that about eight or nine scribes were involved in the creation and made consecutive sections of the manuscript.

Basically, the Scribes were the priesthood members and made the religious content of the codex. It is assumed that all priests got the book one by one, and whenever they got this, they added a section to their hands.

In this case, the pictures depict rituals like human sacrifice and invoking rainfall, regular tasks- beekeeping, hunting, warfare, and weaving. Besides, the other pictures display that gods are taking Sikar smoke like modern cigars containing tobacco leaves.

Origin of Madrid Codex: 

Michael Coe and Justin Kerr were the two scholars who said that its origin was dated to after the Spanish conquest. However, the proof says that the document belongs to the pre-conquest date. It is expected that the codex was created in Yucatán. Whereas, Yucatecan is the language used here. This one is a group of Mayan languages, which contains Yucatec, Itza, Lacandon, and Mopan. In addition, these languages were distributed among the Yucatán Peninsula, like Chiapas, Belize, and the Guatemalan department of Petén.

According to J. Eric Thompson, its origin was in western Yucatán between 1250 and 1450 AD. Suggestions of some scholars also say that its origin may be the Petén region of Guatemala.

However, the opinions of all scholars are not the same. Other scholars said that it was similar to murals available at Chichen Itza, Mayapan, and other sites like Santa Rita, Tancah, & Tulum, which are on the east coast. There are two fragments of paper, and these are incorporated into its front and last pages, where we can find proof of Spanish writing. As a result, Thompson suggested that the document was acquired by a Spanish priest at Tayasal in Petén.

Discovery of Madrid Codex:

In 1860, it was founded and categorized into two various portions. These were of different sizes and available in different locations. Madrid codex gets Tro-Cortesianus Codex's another name after those parts were found. According to the scholar Léon de Rosny, these two parts belonged to the same book.

Troano Codex was the name of the bigger part. French scholar Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg published it in 1869–1870. In 1866, he discovered the part in possession of Juan de Tro y Ortolano in Madrid. This French scholar was the person who identified this first as a Maya book. Later, in 1888, the ownership of this part went to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional which is known as the "National Archaeological Museum".

Cortesianus Codex was the name of the smaller part that Juan de Palacios attempted to sell in 1867. Hence, you should know that he was a Madrid resident. Later, this part went to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional which acquired this in 1872 from José Ignacio Miró, who was a book collector by profession. He claimed that he recently bought this codex from Extremadura, a place from where Francisco de Montejo and several conquistadors came, like the work of Hernán Cortés, who won Mexico.

It is expected that anybody these conquistadors brought it to Spain. After that, this smaller part was named after Hernán Cortés, the director of the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. According to him, he was the person who brought it to Spain.

c. 1400 CE, when the Mayan period was about to end, people believed that it was the product of the late period. However, this one may be a post-Classic copy of the Classic Mayan scholarship. While its figures were sketched poorly, it was not similar to the other surviving codices in quality.

There you can find detailed information about astrology and divinatory practices in the book. While anthropologists can identify many Mayan gods, it is precious to historians. It was also precious to anthropologists who wanted to reconstruct the rites which ushered in the New Year. Additionally, there are available Mayan crafts like pottery & weaving and activities including hunting.

The pages of the Madrid codex were manufactured from the bark of a fig tree. In 1888, its two parts were brought together. As a result, the final document is now available in the Museum of America in Madrid.

Maya: 

Over five million people spoke thirty Mayan languages in the early 21st century. Among those people, most of them were bilingual in Spanish. Maya possessed a very big civilization belonging to the Western Hemisphere before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America. Those people used to practise agriculture, make great stone buildings and pyramid temples, and worked gold and copper.

They had settled villages at the beginning of 1500 BCE. Then, these people made an agriculture cultivating corn (maize), beans, and squash. They also cultivated cassava (sweet manioc) by 600 CE. Later, they started building ceremonial centres, which turned into towns by 200 CE. Temples, pyramids, palaces, courts for playing ball, and plazas were developed there as improvements. They used to quarry limestone or building stones a lot and cut these stones with the help of chert & other harder stones.

While they used to practise slash-and-burn agriculture, they also used improved tricks of terracing & irrigation. Besides, a highly sophisticated astronomical system was developed. They produced paper using the inner bark of wild fig trees. After that, they used these papers as books to write their hieroglyphs. We know these books as codices. In addition, they made a tradition of sculpture and relief carving. We can know about them from primary resources like architectural works, stone inscriptions, and reliefs.

The period about 250 CE, at the time of the rise of Maya, is called the Classic Period of Mayan culture to archaeologists. This period lasted until about 900 CE. Their civilization was over 40 cities and each town contained between 5,000 and 50,000 people. Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque, and Río Bec are names of some principal cities in this case. While there are about two million people in total, most people live in the lowlands— Guatemala.

Although, the classic Maya civilization had declined precipitously. Therefore, the principal cities and the ceremonial centres remained vacant. According to a few scholars, it happened due to the armed conflicts and the exhaustion of agricultural land. After that, they came up with another reason for the decline of civilization after discoveries in the twenty-first century. The river disruption related to battle and land trade paths is also the reason behind it.

Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Mayapán, and some other towns were getting improvements and developments continuously during the Post-Classic Period (900–1519), and it continued for some centuries while lowland towns got depopulated. Maya who used to practise their forebear's religious rites, became village-dwelling agriculturists when Spaniards conquered locations in the sixteenth century.

Whereas Mayan cities and ceremonial centres were adorned with several pyramidal temples and palaces that were made of limestone blocks. But it is also true that scholars did not know the true nature of Mayan society, what hieroglyphics meant, and the chronicle of its history for centuries after the discovery of old building sites by Spaniards.

In the 1830s, the systematic explorations of these sites were undertaken first, and it was early and in the middle of the twentieth century when a tiny part of the writing system got deciphered. As a result, these highlighted the Mayan religion based on the Sun, the Moon, rain, and corn.

A pinnacle of intellectual achievement is represented by positional notation and the zero's usage. Their astronomy underlies a calendrical system which is hard to understand. It includes an accurately determined solar year, a sacred calendar of 260 days, and various longer cycles. In this case, you should know that the solar year consists of 18 months of 20 days each and five days extra. However, they believed it was unlucky. On the flip side, the sacred calendar includes 13 cycles of 20 named days. Astronomers could guess solar eclipses accurately.

In the middle of the twentieth century, scholars mistakenly thought, based on the discoveries, that their society had peaceful stargazers and calendar keepers. Several hieroglyphs depict the history of the rulers who fought against the weak towns and took their aristocrats captive. There was a tradition to torture the captives, mutilate them and later sacrifice them to the gods.

The Bottom Line:

You should know that torturing and sacrificing humans to gods were some of the basic religious rituals. People believed that it would guarantee fertility. In case they did not do such practices, cosmic disorder and chaos were believed to happen. People thought that drawing human blood could nourish the gods. Thus, they might get the chance to contact gods.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. What is the main difference between the Madrid Codex and the Dresden Codex?

The length of the Madrid Codex is approximately 22 feet, and this part has 56 leaves meaning there are a total of 112 pages. On the other hand, the Dresden Codex has 74 pages. The Paris codic contains 24 pages, whereas the Grolier codice have ten pages.

Q. Where is the Madrid Codex?

It is in the Museo de América.

Q. When was the Madrid Codex discovered?

The Madrid Codices I–II (I – Ms. 8937 i II – Ms. 8936) was found in 1965 by Leonardo da Vinci and Dr. Jules Piccus in the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid.

Codex Zographensis

Codex Zographensis, also known as Tetraevangelium Zographense, is an illuminated Old Church Slavonic canon manuscript. It comes with 304 parchment folios. The first 288 are available in Glagolitic, organized as Tetraevangelium (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and the rest are available in Cyrillic, containing a 13th-century synaxarium. The manuscript was back to the end of the 10th or early 11th century.

About Codex Zographensis:

The project runs a challenging program of the National Library of Russia for digitizing the most important manuscripts. It started in 2013 with the digitized Laurentian Codex. The project's objective is to make cultural and historical treasures available online.

This project is the eighth in a series and deals with the rare Tetraevangelium Zographense. It is a rare example of an almost complete Glagolitic book. The major part of the book was made in the 11th century and kept in the Zograf Monastery on the Holy Mt. Athos for multiple years.

When it was the mid 19th century, people used this unique manuscript of Emperor Alexander II by the monastery's monks. Then, in 1861, this manuscript was given to the Manuscripts Department of the Imperial Public Library that we know as the National Library of Russia. It has preserved the manuscript until today.

The Zograf Monastery monks came to Russia in January 2016 and visited the Manuscripts Department. They said how they put effort into making the «Zographensis Room.» It is a digital library of ancient manuscripts from the Zograf Monastery located at Sofia University.

People made the online presentation of the manuscript using the Information Retrieval System "Depositary," invented by the Library's specialists. They created it to form a database of the manuscripts, and the search system helps to link digital pages of the manuscript.

The basic idea of the project is an integrated approach to the representation of the landmark manuscript. As a result, the online source is valuable for the general public, students, and researchers as it can fulfill the information needs and objectives.

Tetraevangelium Zographense:

Furthermore, the manuscript allows you to trace the Glagolitic script's evolution and its transformation into the Cyrillic alphabet.

The parchment contains three parts written in various scripts at different times. When it was the 12th century, people inserted many sheets into the body of the book to finish the text lost by the time. We know these added pages as palimpsests, and it was those on which people wrote sheets twice or even three times.

You should know that these are precious materials if you want to know about the history of ancient texts or study them. These contain visible traces of the previous writing, and you can use optoelectronic methods to read the lower layer. Besides, the project contains seven palimpsest sheets in which the four Gospels have been erased. Priest John was the scribe of this part who left his name in the record read on f. 288 v. manuscript.

The manuscript's last part contains supplements to the Gospels, the book of saints with the church calendar. You can find many details in the margins of the manuscript sheets, both in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet.

These include all additions, corrections, explanations of the main text, opening words of the readings, etc. The note's content is a unique thing to study. Characteristic headpieces of geometric ornament and initials arrange the manuscript.

History of Codex Zographensis:

As per the oral tradition, the project took place in the conventual church of the Bulgarian Zograf monastery, besides the Ierisso on the Athos peninsula.

The landmark came to its existence in 1843 to scientists after serving as Austrian consul in Constantinople of Antun Mihanović, the Croatian writer and collector of manuscripts.

A historian and Slavist, Viktor Grigorovich, visited the Zograf Monastery. He was a professor at universities in Kazan, Moscow, and Odessa, who mentioned the manuscript as one of the vital ones stored at that time on Mount Athos. In 1860, Archimandrite Anthimus gave the manuscript to the Russian Emperor Alexander II.

Tetraevangelium Zographense Discovery:

The real source of the manuscript belonged to the Bulgarian Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos. Antun Mihanović, who was a Croatian writer and Habsburgian diplomat, found it in 1843 while staying at the monastery. Victor Grigorovich, the Russian historian and folklorist, described the manuscript's importance. He is regarded as the founder of Slavonic studies in Russia.

Izmail Sreznevsky revealed the first transcription of some of its parts in 1856. After that, monks from the Zograf monastery gave it to Russia in 1860 during an archaeological expedition of Pyotr Sevastyanov (1811-1867). People divided and shared the archaeological collection in 1862 with different institutions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Victor Grigorovich described the manuscript in 1877. After two years, Slavist Vatroslav Jagić published it in Berlin as Quattuor evangeliorum codex glagoliticus Olim Zographensis Nunc Petropolitanus. It contains an extensive philological commentary in Latin.

It was 1954 when the Jagic edition was reprinted as a facsimile edition. Many other scholars have studied the manuscript's language, including Josef Kurz, Leszek Moszyński, and the librarian Vyacheslav Zagrebin. However, it was the Vyacheslav who restored it during the 1990s.

In January 2016, monks of the Zograf monastery came to Saint Petersburg to report about it, and they wanted to make it available to the public. As a result, a Zographensis room was set up at the SS for their diplomatic visit. In addition, there were several things, such as Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia and a virtual exhibition that was published on the homepage of the Russian National Library.

The Bottom Line:

According to the modern research, you get to know that the actual manuscript, Codex Zographensis, was decorated with miniatures of the Evangelists. Scientists found plenty of traces of the paint on the folios proceeding from the order of the Gospels. These help to contact the missing sheets with miniatures. But they can't still find these miniatures. The article lets you know about the details of this manuscript. Go through the article correctly to get the best from it.

The Secret Codex of a Lost Civilisation Being Hidden Beneath a 16th Century Manuscript for 500 Years

Codex Selden – Lost Civilisation in Mexico

Research scrutinized a manuscript known as the Codex Selden dating around 1560 and is said to be one of the less than 20 Mexican codices which has survived from the pre-Columbian period. For almost 500 years, the contents had been unsatisfyingly concealed by a layer of plaster covering the details of a lost civilization which had existed in Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish.

However due to a new imaging technique, for the first time, historians can go through the material on top to disclose a series of pictograms on the deer underneath. This has provided them with a glimpse at the culture and history of the early Mexican civilisation which was known as the Mixtec.

However experts suspect that the codex could have been formed from a much older document which had been covered up to arrange for a new surface for writing. The document which is 16 feet long is composed of deer hide which is covered with gesso, said to be a white plaster made from gypsum and chalk before it is folded into a 20 page manuscript. The plaster had been scraped away in the 1950s to expose a vague image on the deer hide below though no further work has been revealed as to what lies below for fear of damaging the same.

Hyperspectral Imaging

However, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who have been working with the historians at Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, housing the Codex Selden, have located a way of seeing through the plaster. Their discovery had been published in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences.

The technique utilised was known as hyperspectral imaging to reveal the outline of vivid pictogram which were on the original document.David Howell, head of heritage science at the Bodleian Libraries also involved in the research stated that `hyperspectal imaging has portrayed great promise in helping to begin to reconstruct the story of the hidden codex and finally to recover new information regarding Mixtex history and archaeology.

It is a new technique and they have learned valuable lessons on how to utilise hyperspectral imaging in the future for very fragile manuscript as well as for countless others like it. An archaeologist at Leiden University, Ludo Snijders, leading the work had informed MailOnline that they are now for the first time capable of revealing at least in part, the images of the palimpsest without the fear of damaging the object.

Genealogy Appear Unique

He further added that `what’s interesting is that the text found does not match that of the other early Mixtec manuscripts. The genealogy seen appears to be unique which means it may prove invaluable for the interpretation of archaeological remains from southern Mexico’.

Seven of the pages of the codex had been analysed by the researchers and some of the pages featured over 20 characters sitting or standing though all seemed to be looking in the same direction. Similar scenes were also located on other Mixtex manuscripts that typically represent a King with his council. Scrutiny of the characters concealed under the Codex Selden exposed though that they portrayed a mixture of male as well as female characters and the same has perplexed scientists on what the text could be illustrating.

 Besides this, there were other imaged comprising of people walking with sticks and spears, women with red hair or headdresses and glyphs illustrating a river which seems to be names of place.The imaging also disclosed a prominent individual who is seen recurrently on the document and is represented by a big glyph comprising of a twisted cord and a flint knife.