Editing Maya codices (section)

==Madrid Codex==
{{Main|Madrid Codex (Maya)}}
[[File:Facsímil Códice Tro-Cortesiano.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Facsimile of the Madrid Codex, Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain]]
The Madrid Codex was rediscovered in Spain in the 1860s; it was divided into two parts of differing sizes that were found in different locations.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127">Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 127.</ref> The Codex receives its alternate name of the Tro-Cortesianus Codex after the two parts that were separately discovered.<ref name="FAMSI">FAMSI.</ref> Ownership of the Troano Codex passed to the [[National Archaeological Museum of Spain|Museo Arqueológico Nacional]] ("National Archaeological Museum") in 1888.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20">Noguez et al. 2009, p. 20.</ref> The Museo Arqueológico Nacional acquired the Cortesianus Codex from a book-collector in 1872, who claimed to have recently purchased the codex in [[Extremadura]].<ref>Noguez et al. 2009, pp. 20–21.</ref> Extremadura is the province from which [[Francisco de Montejo]] and many of his [[conquistador]]s came,<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127"/> as did [[Hernán Cortés]], the conqueror of Mexico.<ref name="Noguez&c09p21">Noguez et al. 2009, p. 21.</ref> It is therefore possible that one of these conquistadors brought the codex back to Spain;<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127"/> the director of the Museo Arqueológico Nacional named the Cortesianus Codex after Hernán Cortés, supposing that he himself had brought the codex back.<ref name="Noguez&c09p21"/>

The Madrid Codex is the longest of the surviving Maya codices.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20"/> The content of the Madrid Codex mainly consists of almanacs and horoscopes that were used to help [[Maya priesthood|Maya priests]] in the performance of their ceremonies and divinatory rituals. The codex also contains astronomical tables, although fewer than the other two generally accepted surviving Maya codices.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127"/> A close analysis of glyphic elements suggests that a number of scribes were involved in its production, perhaps as many as eight or nine, who produced consecutive sections of the manuscript; the scribes were likely to have been members of the priesthood.<ref>Ciudad et al. 1999, pp. 877, 879.</ref>

Some scholars, such as [[Michael Coe]] and Justin Kerr,<ref>Miller 1999, p. 187.</ref> have suggested that the Madrid Codex dates to after the [[Spanish conquest of Yucatán|Spanish conquest]] but the evidence overwhelmingly favours a pre-conquest date for the document. It is likely that the codex was produced in [[Yucatán (state)|Yucatán]].<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127"/> [[J. Eric S. Thompson|J.&nbsp;Eric Thompson]] was of the opinion that the Madrid Codex came from western Yucatán and dated to between 1250 and 1450 AD. Other scholars have expressed a differing opinion, noting that the codex is similar in style to murals found at [[Chichen Itza]], [[Mayapan]] and sites on the east coast such as Santa Rita, [[Tancah]] and [[Tulum]].<ref name="SharerTraxler06p129">Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 129.</ref> Two paper fragments incorporated into the front and last pages of the codex contain Spanish writing, which led Thompson to suggest that a Spanish priest acquired the document at [[Nojpetén|Tayasal]] in Petén.<ref>Coe 1999, p. 200. Ciudad et al. 1999, p. 880.</ref>