GUATEMALA: Mayan Manuscript Returned (In Replica)

[Judi Lynn]

GUATEMALA: Mayan Manuscript Returned (In Replica)
By Inés Benítez

GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 26 (IPS) - A Mayan manuscript known as the Dresden Codex was acquired by the Royal Library of the court of Saxony in 1739. As of this week, an exact replica of the precious manuscript is on display in Guatemala, donated by the Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany, which holds the original.

One of only three pre-Columbian Mayan manuscripts in existence, the Dresden Codex was written and illustrated between 1200 and 1250 by eight scribes. It contains astronomical tables, forecasts of weather and harvests, and writings about illness, medicine, constellations and planets.

It was probably sent to Europe by Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés as a tribute to King Charles I of Spain, who was also the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and it somehow found its way to the Dresden library, via Vienna.

"We are very grateful. Access to the codex will stimulate scientific work and progress," Guatemalan Deputy Foreign Minister Luis Fernando Andrade told IPS. Andrade brought the copy back to the country on Sept. 18, after receiving it from Thomas Bürger, the head of the Saxon State Library.

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