Paris Codex

The codex consists of a strip measuring {{Convert|140|cm|in}} long by {{convert|23.5|cm|in}} high, folded into 11 sheets painted on both sides, forming 22 pages total. An additional sheet is believed to have once existed, but became lost by the 19th century.{{cite book|last1=Love|first1=Bruce|title=The Paris Codex: Handbook for a Maya Priest|date=1994|publisher=Univ. of Texas Press|location=Austin|isbn=0292746741|page=xviii}} The Paris Codex is very poorly preserved, comprising a number of fragments;Coe 1999, p. 200. the lime plaster coating of the codex is badly eroded at the edges, resulting in the destruction of its hieroglyphs and images except in the center of its pages.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 127.

File:The Paris Codex 03.tif

The content of the codex is mainly ritual in nature, and one side of the codex contains the patron deities and associated rituals for a cycle of thirteen kʼatuns (a 20-year Maya calendrical cycle).Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 127. Noguez et al 2009, p. 16. One fragment contains animals that represent astronomical signs along the ecliptic including a scorpion and a peccary;Coe 1999, p. 217. fragments of this Maya "zodiac" are depicted on two pages of the codex.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 118. Some pages of the codex are marked with annotations made with Latin characters.Noguez et al 2009, p. 16.

On one side of the codex the general format of each page largely follows the same arrangement, with a standing figure on the left hand side and a seated figure on the right hand side. Each page also contains the ajaw day glyph combined with a numerical coefficient, in each case representing a date marking the final day of a calendrical cycle. In spite of the poor state of preservation of the document, enough text has survived to demonstrate that in the case of the Paris Codex, the main series of dates correspond to kʼatun-endings, allowing for the reconstruction of some of the lost date glyphs in the text. The seated figures are each associated with a sidereal glyph indicating that they represent the ruling deity of each kʼatun.

The reverse of the codex is more varied in nature and includes a section dedicated to a calendrical cycle ruled by Chaac, the god of rain. It also includes information about the prognostication of rainfall and maize crop yields, as well as information about spiritual forces.{{Cite book |last=Carrasco |first=Dav́d |title=The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Mesoamerican Cultures |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780195108156}} A set of two pages illustrates the days of the tzolkʼin 260-day cycle that correspond to the beginning of the solar year over a period of 52 years (a cycle of the Calendar Round). The final two pages of the codex depict a series of thirteen animals that represent the so-called "zodiac".

Modern studies of the codex have concluded that the end of the zodiac cycle illustrated within it show "a psychological predilection to Mayan fatalism," suggesting that the end of the Mayan Classic Period was the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy.Bower, J. (2016). The Mayan written word: History, controversy, and library connections. International Journal of the Book, 14(3), 15–25. p. 19.

In common with the other two generally accepted Maya codices (the Dresden Codex and the Madrid Codex), the document is likely to have been created in Yucatán; English Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson thought it likely that the Paris Codex was painted in western Yucatán and dated to between AD 1250 and 1450.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 129. Bruce Love noted the similarities between a scene on page 11 of the codex and Stela 1 at Mayapan; based on this he proposed that the codex was produced in Mayapan around 1450.Rice 2009, pp. 32–33. However, further analysis of the stela in question suggests an earlier date of 1185 indicating that the calendrical information may refer to an earlier kʼatun cycle than the one suggested by Love. The astronomical and calendrical information within the Paris Codex are consistent with a Classic period cycle from AD 731 to 987 indicating that the codex may be a copy of a much earlier document.Vail 2006, p. 504.

The Paris Codex came to light in 1859 when Léon de Rosny found it in a basket of old papers in the corner of a chimney in the Bibliothèque Impériale in Paris.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 127. Drew 1999, p. 82. The codex had apparently been examined some twenty-five years earlier by scholars and had been catalogued but it is not known how the document found its way to Paris.Drew 1999, p. 83. The document was found with a piece of paper attributing it to the collection of colonial Maya documents assembled by Juan Pío Pérez.Noguez et al 2009, p. 17.

Paris_Codex,_pages_19-24,_1.jpg|Pages 19–24 and page 1

Paris_Codex,_pages_21-22.jpg|Pages 21–22

The_Paris_Codex_21.tif|Pages from The Codex Perez; An Ancient Mayan Hieroglyphic Book

The_Paris_Codex_22.tif|

{{Reflist|2}}

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• {{cite web |author=Bibliothèque Nationale de France |year=2011 |title=Codex Peresianus |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8446947j/f1.image.r=peresianus.langEN |access-date=2013-04-15 |publisher=Bibliothèque Nationale de France |location=Paris, France|language=fr}}
• {{cite book |author=Coe, Michael D. |author-link=Michael D. Coe |year=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 book |author=Drew, David |author-link=David Drew (archaeologist) |year=1999 |title=The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings |location=London, UK |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=0-297-81699-3 |oclc=43401096 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lostchroniclesof0000drew_j2y5 }}
• {{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=Rice, Prudence M. |year=2009 |chapter=The Kowoj in Geopolitical-Ritual Perspective |editor=Prudence M. Rice |editor2=Don S. Rice|title=The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala |location=Boulder, Colorado, US |publisher=University Press of Colorado |pages=21–54|isbn=978-0-87081-930-8 |oclc=225875268}}
• {{cite book |author=Sharer, Robert J. |author-link=Robert Sharer |author2=Loa P. Traxler |year=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 journal |author=Vail, Gabrielle |year=2006 |title=The Maya Codices |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=35 |pages=497–519 |jstor=25064935 |publisher=Annual Reviews |location=Palo Alto, California, USA |oclc=103903925 |issn=1545-4290 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123324}} {{subscription required}}

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• {{cite journal |author=Houston, Stephen D. |title=The Paris Codex: Handbook for a Maya Priest (Review) |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=99 |issue=2 |pages=459–460 |date=June 1997 |url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1997.99.2.459/abstract |doi=10.1525/aa.1997.99.2.459|url-access=subscription }} {{subscription required}}
• {{cite book |author=Love, Bruce |title=The Paris codex: handbook for a Maya priest |year=1994 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292746749 |location=Austin, Texas, USA |oclc=27897581}}
• {{cite journal |author=Severin, Gregory M. |year=1981 |title=The Paris Codex: Decoding an Astronomical Ephemeris |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |series=New Series |volume=71 |issue=5 |pages=1–101 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |jstor=1006397 |oclc=8044756 |isbn=9780871697158}} {{subscription required}}

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• {{Commons category-inline|Paris Codex}}
• [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8446947j.r=peresianus.langEN The Paris Codex] at the website of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, with public domain images of the original document.
• [http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/codex/ The Paris Codex] at the website of Northwestern University Library, with reconstructed images of pages

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Category:Maya codices