Other Maya codices

Apart from the Codex Dresdensis, only three other original codices are known worldwide, which escaped the burning of Mayan writings as evidence of superstition and devil's lies, that was carried out on 12 July 1562 by order of Diego de Landa, the later bishop of Yucatán:

Madrid Codex

The Codex Tro-Cortesianus (Madrid, Museo de América) has been handed down in two parts, which originated in 1875 and 1888 respectively from the possession of the archivist and palaeographer Juan de Tro y Ortolano (Codex Troano) and of the Madrid collector José Ignacio Miró (Codex Cortesianus, after the conquistador Hernán Cortés), respectively, and were recognized as belonging together by Léon de Rosny in 1881. The manuscript has a total length of 6.80 m and a circumference of 58 leaves in leporello folding. It contains peasant almanachs, a section on beekeeping, astronomical tables, calculations on the execution of sacrifices and rites, combined with corresponding depictions of gods and everyday activities. The codex, which is very similar to the Dresden codex in terms of layout, but less careful in its execution, is dated around 1500. Digital copies

Paris Codex

The Codex Peresianus (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fonds Mexicain, No. 386) was discovered in the then Bibliothèque Impériale in Paris in 1859. It is a fragment of 11 very fragile leaves with a total length of 1.40 m. The inscription and painting can only be seen in the centre of the pages. The manuscript, which is to be dated to c. 1300 to 1500 AD, essentially contains a complete K'atun cycle (13 x 20 years), depictions of the corresponding patronage gods and their offerings, a calendar cycle ruled by the rain god Chaac, and a zodiac. Digital copies

 

Mexico Codex

The manuscript, formerly known as Codex Grolier, is a part of a Venus calendar. It consists of 10 very fragmentarily preserved leaves, which are inscribed only on one side and which originally had a format of 18 x 12.5 cm. The leaves were allegedly found in a cave in the highlands of Chiapas in the early 1960s, acquired around 1965 by the economist and collector Josué Saenz, exhibited at the Grolier Club in New York in 1971 and handed over to the Mexican government in 1974. A radiocarbon dating confirmed the authenticity of the writing material (Amate), but the very well preserved inscription and painting were considered fake for a long time. However, extensive research and scientific studies carried out between 2015 and 2018 proved the codex in its entirety to be an original, which was written between 1021 and 1154 AD and can therefore be considered the oldest book in America. Today, the document is kept as the "Códice Maya de México" in the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia (BNAH) in Mexico City. Digital copies