Editing Maya codices (section)

{{Short description|Manuscript  written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script}}

[[File:Dresden Codex p09.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Page 9 of the Dresden Codex (from the 1880 [[Ernst Förstemann|Förstemann]] edition)]]
'''Maya codices''' ({{singular}}: ''[[codex]]'') are folding [[book]]s written by the [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] [[Maya civilization]] in [[Maya script|Maya hieroglyphic script]] on [[Mesoamerica]]n [[Amate|bark paper]]. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of deities such as the [[Tonsured Maize God]] and the [[Howler Monkey Gods]]. The codices have been named for the cities where they eventually settled. The ''[[Dresden Codex]]'' is generally considered the most important of the few that survive.

The Maya made paper from the inner bark of a certain [[Ficus|wild fig]] tree, ''[[Ficus cotinifolia]]''.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Schottmueller |first1=Paul Werner |date=February 2020 |title=A Study of the Religious Worldview and Ceremonial Life of the Inhabitants of Palenque and Yaxchilan |type=MLA |publisher=Harvard University |url=https://www.academia.edu/43205078 |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.maya-archaeology.org/FLAAR_Reports_on_Mayan_archaeology_Iconography_publications_books_articles/57_Economic-potential-for-Amate-Ficus-trees-in-Guatemala-FLAAR-Reports-Nicholas-Hellmuth.pdf |title=Economic Potential for Amate Trees |last=Hellmuth |first=Nicholas M. |date= |website=Maya Archaeology |publisher= |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> This sort of paper was generally known by the word ''huun'' in [[Mayan languages]] (the [[Aztec people]] far to the north used the word ''[[amatl|āmatl]]'' {{IPA|nah|ˈaːmat͡ɬ|}} for paper). The Maya developed their ''huun''-paper around the 5th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burns |first1=Marna |title=The Complete Book of Handcrafted Paper |date=2004 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=9780486435442 |page=199}}</ref> Maya paper was more durable and a better writing surface than [[papyrus]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wiedemann |first1=Hans G. |last2=Brzezinka |first2=Klaus-Werner |last3=Witke |first3=Klaus |last4=Lamprecht |first4=Ingolf  |name-list-style=amp|title=Thermal and Raman-spectroscopic analysis of Maya Blue carrying artefacts, especially fragment IV of the Codex Huamantla |journal=Thermochimica Acta |date=May 2007 |volume=456 |issue=1 |pages=56–63 |doi=10.1016/j.tca.2007.02.002|bibcode=2007TcAc..456...56W }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Our knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny fraction of the whole picture, for of the thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times (as though all that posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and ''[[Pilgrim's Progress]]'').|Michael D. Coe<ref>Coe, Michael D. ''The Maya'', London: Thames and Hudson, 4th ed., 1987, p. 161</ref>}}