Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex: with a Concluding Note Upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya GlyphsGates, William
History
Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex: with a Concluding Note Upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya Glyphs
Gates, William
Codex Peresianus; Maya language -- Texts; Mayas -- History
I have been able to find no inaccuracy in the 1888 edition, which is
indeed stated in the introduction to be entirely by mechanical process,
without hand intervention; but being reproduced by printer’s ink in
black only, not only do the colors not appear, but the chromatic values
are actually far inferior to the photographs of 1864. It was stated
further by Prof. de Rosny that some features of the MS. had been lost by
deterioration in the 25 years previous to his editions of 1887 and 1888,
but this I have not been able to verify in any important point.
The photographs and the edition of 1888 are to all general purposes
identical; but, notwithstanding that the photographs are steadily
yellowing by age, the chromatic values are so far superior that I have
continually come to find them the court of final decision in doubtful
matters. In a very considerable number of instances a close examination
of the photographs has suggested the presence of faint lines of color
on glyphs or figures, which was entirely indistinguishable in both of
the printed editions, and which was yet in every case confirmed,
although sometimes with difficulty, by the examination of the original
MS.
The proved value, as well as the scarcity, of these photographs was so
great, that in 1905 I had my set photographed twice, by dry and wet
plate processes, and a few copies printed after a careful comparison and
selection of the two sets of plates. It is from these that the present
edition has grown.[9-*]
The present edition, save for the photographs thus reproduced, having
been entirely redrawn, and partly restored, it is fitting to detail just
what has been done in this respect.
At the very beginning of my introduction to Maya studies the enormous
burdens placed on research therein at every turn, bore upon me as upon
every other student. The subject and its possibilities stimulate
enthusiasm to the highest degree; the rewards of success are greater
than those of any like problem today; and yet, fifty years since the
present Codex was discovered, and thirty years since Dr. Förstemann’s
unsurpassable edition of the Dresden Codex, the actual workers on the
problem are the barest handful. A few scattered and obscure references
amongst the volumes on volumes of Spanish writers, nearly all
untranslated, most of them scarce or almost unprocurable, and many not
even printed, make up the literature to be searched out. And a few
points of decipherment won and safely fixed by the researchers, from
Brasseur, de Rosny, Pousse, Brinton and others a generation ago, to
Messrs. Bowditch, Seler, Goodman and a few others of today, are all we
have--standing out in a wilderness of guesses by many writers, needless
of naming.
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