Editing Madrid Codex (Maya)

{{Short description|One of three surviving pre-Columbian Maya books}}
{{Infobox manuscript
<!----------Name---------->| name = ''Madrid Codex''
| location = [[Museo de América]]
<!----------Image---------->| image = File:Museo de America Madrid Codex.jpg
| width = 300px
| caption = Copy of the Madrid Codex on display at the [[Museum of the Americas (Madrid)|Museo de América]] in Madrid
<!----------General---------->| Also known as = ''Tro-Cortesianus Codex'', ''Troano Codex''
| Type = codex
| Date = Postclassic period (1250–1450)
| Place of origin = western [[Yucatán]], [[Mexico]]
| Language(s) = [[Yucatecan languages|Yucatec Maya]]
<!----------Form and content---------->| Material = [[amate|bark paper]]<ref name="Noguez&c09p16"/>
| Size = {{convert|23.2|by|12.2|cm|in}}
| Format = screenfold book
| Condition = 
| Script = [[Maya script]]
| Contents = ritual almanacs and horoscopes used to help Mayan priests in the performance of their ceremonies.
| Additions = 
| Discovered = 1866 in [[Madrid]]
}}

The '''Madrid Codex''' (also known as the '''Tro-Cortesianus Codex''' or the '''Troano Codex''')<ref name="GarciaSaiz10p54">García Saíz et al. 2010, p. 54.</ref> is one of four surviving pre-Columbian [[Maya codices|Maya books]] dating to the Postclassic period of [[Mesoamerican chronology]] (''circa'' 900–1521 AD).<ref>Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 126.</ref> The Madrid Codex was produced in western [[Yucatán]], [[Mexico]], today is held by the [[Museum of the Americas (Madrid)|Museo de América]] in Madrid and is considered to be the most important piece in its collection.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Madrid (Tro-Cortesian) Codex |url=https://www.cultura.gob.es/museodeamerica/en/coleccion/america-prehispanica/c-dice-trocortesiano.html |website=Museo de América}}</ref> However, the original is not on display due to its fragility; an accurate reproduction is displayed in its stead.<ref name="GarciaSaiz10p54"/> At one point in time the codex was split into two pieces, given the names "Codex Troano" and "Codex Cortesianus". In the 1880s, [[:fr:Léon_de_Rosny|Leon de Rosny]], an [[Ethnology|ethnologist]], realised that the two pieces belonged together, and helped combine them into a single text. This text was subsequently brought to Madrid, and given the name "Madrid Codex", which remains its most common name today.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paxton |first=M |title=The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya: Cycles and Steps from the Madrid Codex |publisher=University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque |year=2001}}</ref>

==Physical characteristics==
The Codex was made from a long strip of [[amate]] paper that was folded up accordion-style. This paper was then coated with a thin layer of fine [[stucco]], which was used as the painting surface.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20"/> The complete document consists of 56 sheets painted on both sides to produce a total of 112 pages.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20"/> The Troano is the larger part, consisting of 70 pages comprising pages 22–56 and 78–112. It takes its name from Juan Tro y Ortolano. The remaining 42 pages were originally known as the Cortesianus Codex, and include pages 1–21 and 57–77.<ref name="FAMSI">FAMSI.</ref> Each page measures roughly {{convert|23.2|by|12.2|cm|in}}.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20"/> On the 56th page there is a patch of paper that does not match the rest of the paper. The patch is believed to be of European paper, however further research has not been conducted as it could be harmful to the codex.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bower |first1=Jessica |title=The Mayan Written Word: History, Controversy, and Library Connections |journal=The International Journal of the Book |date=2016 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=19-20 |url=https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9516/CGP/v14i03/15-25 |access-date=20 October 2023}}</ref>

==Content==
[[File:Madrid Codex 9.jpg|thumb|right|Scenes connected to the hunt, Madrid Codex]]
The Madrid Codex is the longest of the surviving Maya codices.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20"/> Its content mainly consists of almanacs and horoscopes based on the Mayapan calendar 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 those in the other three surviving Maya codices.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127"/> Some of the content is likely to have been copied from older Maya books.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p129">Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 129.</ref> Included in the codex is a description of the New Year ceremony.<ref name="Ciudad&c99p879">Ciudad et al. 1999, p. 879.</ref>

The codex is stylistically uniform, leading Coe and Kerr to suggest that it was the work of a single scribe. Closer 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.<ref>Ciudad et al. 1999, p. 877.</ref> The religious content of the codex makes it likely that the scribes themselves were members of the priesthood. The codex probably was passed down from priest to priest and each priest who received the book added a section in his own hand.<ref name="Ciudad&c99p879"/>

The images in the Madrid Codex depict rituals such as human sacrifice and invoking rainfall, as well as everyday activities such as beekeeping, hunting, warfare, and weaving.<ref name="Noguez&c09p20">Noguez et al. 2009, p. 20.</ref> Other images show deities smoking ''sikar (see tables 25, 26, and 34 of the Codex)'', similar to modern cigars made of tobacco leaves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://research.famsi.org/botany/plant_info.php?plant_id=138&family=&genus=&species=&authority=&common=&maya=%3Cspan%20CLASS=|title=Charles Zidar - Ancient Maya Botanical Research|website=research.famsi.org|access-date=2019-02-24}}</ref>

==Origin==
According to the codex content it was created in the northwestern part of Yucatán since the document presents the same year-bearers of the Mayapán calendar (''K'an'', ''Muluk'', ''Ix'' and ''Kawak'') and the same symbology used in the region as well as the same New Year rituals and cemonies that were recorded and described by Bishop [[Diego de Landa]] in 1566 performed by the Maya of northwestern Yucatán.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p127"/>

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 favors a pre-conquest date for the document. The language used in the document is the hieroglyphic writing of [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec Maya]] which is part of the [[Yucatecan languages|Yucatecan]] group of [[Mayan languages]] that includes [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec]], [[Itzaʼ language|Itza]], [[Lacandon language|Lacandon]], and [[Mopan Maya language|Mopan]]; these languages are distributed across the [[Yucatán Peninsula]], including [[Chiapas]], [[Belize]], and the [[Guatemala]]n department of [[Petén Department|Petén]].<ref name="Noguez&c09p20" /> [[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. Scholars also suggest that the codex may have originated from the [[Petén Department|Petén]] region of Guatemala as a colonial writing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vail |first1=Gabrielle |last2=Bricker |first2=Victoria R. |last3=Aveni |first3=Anthony F. |last4=Bricker |first4=Harvey M. |last5=Chuchiack |first5=John F. |last6=Hernandez |first6=Christine L. |last7=Just |first7=Bryan R. |last8=Macri |first8=Martha J. |last9=Paxton |first9=Merideth |date=2003 |title=New Perspectives on the Madrid Codex |url= |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=44 |issue=S5 |pages=S105–S112 |doi=10.1086/379270 |s2cid=160017024 |via=University of Chicago Press Journals}}</ref> 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, [[Tankah]], and [[Tulum]].<ref name="SharerTraxler06p129" /> Two paper fragments incorporated into the front and last pages of the codex contain Spanish writing, which led Thompson to early suggest that a Spanish priest acquired the document at [[Nojpetén|Tayasal]] in Petén meaning that the codex was not Pre-Columbian but instead it was a colonial writing,<ref>Coe 1999, p. 200. Ciudad et al. 1999, p. 880.</ref> this theory has been debunked and discarded due to the fact that the pages were pasted years later after the creation of the codex and they don't have any actual proof or context related to the site but it led to other hypothesis since the content of the text could have been a [[Crusade bull|Crusade Bull]], this would indicate that the codex was most likely acquired by Spanish priests as part of the Maya codices confiscated in 1607 by the commissioner of the Holy Crusade in Yucatan, Pedro Sánchez de Aguilar, in Chancenote, eastern Yucatan, where in addition to clay figures, he also recorded that two codices were confiscated.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Presencia y distribución de la lengua maya yucateca en la península de Yucatán del clásico al posclásico tardío |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323519704_Presencia_y_distribucion_de_la_lengua_maya_yucateka_en_la_peninsula_de_Yucatan_del_clasico_al_posclasico_tardio}}</ref>

==Discovery==
[[File:Madrid Codex 6.JPG|thumb|right|Rain-bringing snakes, Madrid Codex]]
The codex was discovered in Spain in the 1860s, and 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"/> Early [[Mayanist]] scholar [[Léon de Rosny]] realised that both fragments were part of the same book.<ref>Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 126, 135.</ref> The larger fragment, the Troano Codex, was published with an erroneous translation in 1869–1870 by French scholar [[Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg]],<ref>Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 127, 135. Noguez et al. 2009, p. 20.</ref> who found it in the possession of Juan de Tro y Ortolano in Madrid in 1866 and first identified it as a Maya book.<ref>Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 135. Vékony 1999. Noguez et al. 2009, p. 20.</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"/>

Madrid resident Juan de Palacios tried to sell the smaller fragment, the Cortesianus Codex, in 1867.<ref>Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 127. Noguez et al. 2009, p. 20.</ref> The Museo Arqueológico Nacional acquired the Cortesianus Codex from book-collector José Ignacio Miró in 1872. Miró 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> One of these conquistadors possibly brought the codex 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 to Spain.<ref name="Noguez&c09p21"/>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px">
File:Animal figures in the Maya codices (Plate 11) BHL41003938.jpg|Animal figures of [[Snakes in mythology|serpents]] in the Maya codices
File:Codex Tro-Cortesianus ff 75-76.jpg|Codex Tro-Cortesianus, pages: 75-76
Madrid rosny bb 0033.jpg|Page 34: astronomy
Madrid Codex page.jpg|
Facsímil Códice Tro-Cortesiano.JPG
Bulletin (1915) (14578611557).jpg|Middle divisions of pages 10 and 11 of the Codex Tro-Cortesiano, showing one tonalamatl extending across the two pages
Alice D. Le Plongeon (American, active Mexico 1880s) - Page of Troano Manuscript - Google Art Project.jpg|Reproduction of page of Troano Manuscript
File:Maya Hieroglyphs Plate 30.jpg|Page 102 of the Codex Tro-Cortesiano, showing tonalamatls in the lower three divisions
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Dresden Codex]]
* [[Maya Codex of Mexico]]
* [[Paris Codex]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|20em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}<!--BEGIN biblio format. -->
*{{cite journal |author=Ciudad Ruiz, Andrés |author2=Alfonso Lacadena |date=1999 |title=El Códice Tro-Cortesiano de Madrid en el contexto de la tradición escrita Maya |trans-title=The Tro-Cortesianus Codex of Madrid in the context of the Maya writing tradition |journal=Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1998 |editor=[[Juan Pedro Laporte|J.P. Laporte]] and H.L. Escobedo |pages=876–888 |publisher=Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología |location=Guatemala City, Guatemala |url=http://www.asociaciontikal.com/pdf/67.98%20-%20Andres%20y%20Alfonso.pdf |access-date=2012-07-23 |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110914100729/http://www.asociaciontikal.com/pdf/67.98%20-%20Andres%20y%20Alfonso.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-14 }}
*{{cite book |author=Coe, Michael D. |author-link=Michael D. Coe |date=1999 |title=The Maya |edition=6th edition, fully revised and expanded |series=Ancient peoples and places series|location=London and New York |publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]] |isbn=0-500-28066-5 |oclc=59432778}}
*{{cite web |author=FAMSI |title=Maya Hieroglyphic Writing – The Ancient Maya Codices: The Madrid Codex |url=http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/madrid.html |access-date=2012-07-24 |publisher=FAMSI (Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies)}}
*{{cite book |author=García Sáiz, Concepción |author2=Félix Jiménez |author3=Araceli Sánchez Garrido |author4=Salvador Rovira |date=2010 |title=Museo de América: Guía Breve |trans-title=Museum of the Americas: Short Guide |publisher=Ministerio de Cultura |location=Madrid, Spain |isbn=978-84-8181-476-7 |url=http://publicacionesoficiales.boe.es/detail.php?id=033255110-0001|language=es}}
*{{cite book |author=Miller, Mary Ellen |author-link=Mary Miller (art historian) |date=1999 |title=Maya Art and Architecture |location=London and New York |publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]] |isbn=0-500-20327-X |oclc=41659173 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mayaartarchitect00mill }}
*{{cite journal |author=Noguez, Xavier |author2=Manuel Hermann Lejarazu |author3=Merideth Paxton |author4= Henrique Vela |title=Códices Mayas |trans-title=Maya codices |journal=Arqueología Mexicana: Códices prehispánicos y coloniales tempranos – Catálogo |volume=Special Edition |issue=31 |publisher=Editorial Raíces |date=August 2009 |pages=10–23|language=es}}
*{{cite book |author=Sharer, Robert J. |author-link=Robert Sharer |author2=Loa P. Traxler |date=2006 |title=The Ancient Maya |edition=6th, fully revised |location=Stanford, California |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=0-8047-4817-9 |oclc=57577446 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientmaya0006shar }}
*{{cite web |author=Vékony, Atilla |date=1999 |title=Mayan Codex Facsimiles |url=http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/mexcodex/maya.htm |publisher=University of Arizona |access-date=2012-07-24}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}<!--BEGIN biblio format. -->
*{{cite journal |author=Bill, Cassandra R. |author2=Christine L. Hernández |author3=Victoria R. Bricker  |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=55155 |title=The relationship between early colonial Maya New Year's ceremonies and some almanacs in the ''Madrid Codex'' |journal=Ancient Mesoamerica |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2000 |pages=149–168 |volume=11 |issue=1 |issn=0956-5361 |oclc=365511722 |doi=10.1017/s0956536100111034|s2cid=162281443 |url-access=subscription }} {{subscription required}}
*{{cite journal |author=Vail, Gabrielle Vail |author2=Victoria R. Bricker |author3=Anthony F. Aveni |author4=Harvey M. Bricker |author5=John F. Chuchiak |author6=Christine L. Hernández |author7=Bryan R. Just |author8=Martha J. Macri |author9=Merideth Paxton |jstor=10.1086/379270 |doi=10.1086/379270 |oclc=820604805 |title=New Perspectives on the Madrid Codex |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=December 2003 |journal=Current Anthropology |location=Chicago, Illinois, USA |volume=44 (supplement) |issue=S5 Special Issue Multiple Methodologies in Anthropological Research |pages=S105–S111|s2cid=160017024 }} {{subscription required}}
*{{cite journal |author=Vail, Gabrielle |author2=Aveni, Anthony |date=September–October 2008 |volume=XVI |issue=93 |pages=74–81 |title=El códice madrid, un viejo documento revela nuevos secretos |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206092208/http://arqueomex.com/PDFs/S8N5COD_MADRIDAveni93.pdf |url=http://arqueomex.com/PDFs/S8N5COD_MADRIDAveni93.pdf |archive-date=2010-02-06 |access-date=2013-05-03 |journal=Arqueología Mexicana |location=Mexico City, Mexico |publisher=Editorial Raíces |issn=0188-8218 |oclc=832413394|language=es}}
{{refend}}<!-- END biblio format style -->

==External links==
{{Commons category|Madrid Codex}}
* [http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/pdf/madrid_rosny_bb.pdf PDF version of the Madrid Codex at FAMSI]
* [https://archive.org/details/madrid_rosny_bb/ Madrid Codex at archive.org]

{{Maya}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Astrological texts]]
[[Category:Maya codices]]