The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript

This volume offers new calendrical models and methodologies for reading, dating, and interpreting the general significance of the Madrid Codex. The longest of the surviving Maya codices, this manuscript includes texts and images painted by scribes conversant in Maya hieroglyphic writing, a written means of communication practiced by Maya elites from the second to the fifteenth centuries A.D. Some scholars have recently argued that the Madrid Codex originated in the Petén region of Guatemala and postdates European contact. The contributors to this volume challenge that view by demonstrating convincingly that it originated in northern Yucatán and was painted in the Pre-Columbian era. In addition, several contributors reveal provocative connections among the Madrid and Borgia group of codices from Central Mexico. Contributors include Anthony Aveni, Harvey M. Bricker, Victoria R. Bricker, John F. Chuchiak, Christine Hernández, Bryan R. Just, Merideth Paxton, John M. D. Pohl, and Gabrielle Vail. Available for download here is the cover page, title page, table of contents, and first chapter entitled "Research Methodologies and New Approaches to Interpreting the Madrid Codex" by Gabrielle Vail and Anthony Aveni. The book in its entirety (426 pages) is available from University Press of Colorado.