.
.
Facsimile reproduction by Ernst Forstemann,1880 with
commentary. This was an early example of a "photographic"
process known as "chromolithography". The black and white
images were reused for an 1892 edition. Additional commentary appeared in
German through 1901. Summary edition of previous work in English translation
with revisions by the author was published in the Papers of the Peabody Museum of
American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard
University,4(2) pgs. 49-269 Cambridge 1906.
There were other graphical reproductions published in the first half of the 20th century,
most importantly the 1930 edition redrawn by Villacorta & Villacorta, which originally appeared in serial form in a Mexican periodico. While there are a few specific
errors in the drawings, it is probably the most serviceable edition and (as a publication that appeared just behind the wire for modern copyright laws) is generally
available from a number of sources. The Spanish commentaries are not considered accurate and as such are not particularly useful.
- The Villacorte y Villacorte material was republished in The Dresden Codex : Drawings of the Pages and Commentary in Spanish (Mayan Studies Series, No 3)
.
(Aegean Park Press would have been more correct to have dubbed these publications the Maya Study Series, since they are studies of the writing system, and are not studies of the Mayan language. Technically speaking, the word Mayan should only be used to refer to the "Mayan" language, and not to Maya culture elements such as the writing system.)
The most complete work on the Dresden is
Commentary on the Dresden Codex by Eric
Thompson. The 1972 original printing of this was only 1000
copies, so if you find it you're pretty lucky. A more widely
available recent impression has been published by Fondo
Cultura Economica in Spanish as Commentarios al
Codice Dresde (check with your local bookseller, it may be out of print).
The reproduction used for the Thompson edition were based on black & white
photographs from the earlier Forstemann printing, and were hand colored
for this publication. In the original 1972 printing, images of the codex pages are printed three to a page side by side in an oversized volume. Commentarios al Codice Dresde restores the codex pages to their original order in screenfold format, and is sold with Thompson's text in Spanish translation as a two volume set.
(There's not much more there
on the Dresden Codex other than this
image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.)
The pictures at the top and top left of this section are from
Page 59 of the Dresden. The
original scanned image can be viewed in your browser
here. It's a huge picture (1125x1054 pixels;
407KB) and includes Page 59 and Page 47
(slightly cropped at the top).
This photo was taken from the book Pre-columbian Art and
later Indian Tribal Arts by Ferdinand Anton and Frederick
J. Dockstader, Harry N. Abrams Publishers, no copyright date
given (my guess would be 1968); used without permission.
Thanks to Steve Kruse for providing this scanned
image.
Amatl paper screenfold painted
on both sides. 11
leaves.
BnF : image : Codex de Paris
(Cover photo on left is copyright
1994 University of Texas Press)
.
The first comprehensive commentary was published by
Ernst Forstemann in 1903. (An unpublished English
translation resides in the Peabody Museum Library).
The Codex is stored in Paris today in a sealed glass case which
hasn't been opened in this century, for fear of damaging it. The
reproduction available from Graz is a reconstruction using
the Forstemann lithographs created in the late 1800s, and hand coloring
extrapolated from the two pages that are visible in the current glass case.
The relatively thin bibliography of recent books published on
any of the Maya codices was significantly updated by Bruce
Love's
The Paris Codex : Handbook for a Maya
Priest . Published by the University of Texas in
1994, it includes an introduction by George Stuart that
provides an annotated publication history.
I encourage you to visit your local bookseller and order
a copy of
The Paris Codex : Handbook for a Maya
Priest
You can also place an order online at Amazon.Com where
you'll find what is ostensibly an interview with the author.
1995-2001 - GBonline [] Last Update: 1 August 2001
