Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex

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With the Regards of the Author Commentary upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex With a Concluding Note upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya Glyphs William E. Gates Profaor H School ocf Antiquity, IntemationaI Thtasaphical Headquarter, Point torna, Calitornia NOTE THE following papcr was written for separate publication, with the view of summarizing soitle of the data afforded by the problems cotlnected with the Rlaya glyphs, and also bearing lrpon the evolution of language-forms in their relation to hu man I istory it has however, up011 t he suggestiol o f Professor I. UT P . t tna bne, c n issuecl as one of the Papers of the Peabody 3luseurn of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Karvard University. The data tl emselves are the accu nulation of the past twelve years, since the writers interest was, aiter various other fields of linguistic stutly, finally drawn to and fixed upon thc languages of the great pre-Columbian American civilizatio ls. Subsequent researches, begun a few years ago, have led to the belief that all lost equal, parallel results will in the future be found to lie within the great Central Asian district, behind what we know as Chinese but to the writer the greatest door to the past is still that of the Maya glyphs. The trcnd of Science for the past thirty years, after taking its rise then at the very climax so thought of materialism, has now in these last two or threc years, especially, become more manifest. A parallel movement is now apparent in nearly every field, each body of scientists working in their own liiles, yet aII seeming as if led towards recognition of a greater past, and of worthier views. Otle need only mention the work of Professor Soddy, Irofessor See, Professor Munsterbergarnong many others. In this progress of Science the writer believes Linguistics, in the rvirler sense, to be of paramount inlportance, and that the philosophy of language is inseparable from Archaeology. was discovered just fifty years ago by Prof. Lion de Rosny, while searching through the BibIiothitque ImpPriale, Paris, in the hope of bringing to light some docu ments of interest for the then newly awakened study of Pre-Columbian America. It was found by him in a basket among a lot of old papers, black with dust and practicaIly abandoned in a chitnney corner. From a few words with the name Perez, written on a torn scrap of paper then around it but since lost, it received its name. Being restored to its proper place in the Library, it was in 1864 photographed by order of M. Victor Duruy, Minister of Instruction, and a few copies issued without further explanatory notes than the printed wrappers. The number of copies is stated by Prof. de Rosny to have been very small in Leclercs Bibl. Am. 1878, No. 2290 it is given as only 10, and in Brasscurs Bibl. Mt-. r.-Gwnf. page 95, as 50. A copy is in the library of the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, and referred to in their publications as a most fortunate acquisition. I had the good fortune to secure a copy some ten years ago, and one other has recently appeared in a Leipzig catalog at a high price. Beyond these I have not traced any other copy. In 1872 Prof. de Rosny published a reproduction, drawn by hand, which, as stated by him later, may be disregarded for practical purposes. In Archives paliographiques dc IOrieftt et de IAmdrique, atlas, t. I, pt. 117-142. In 1887 he issued a facsilnile edition i11 colors, 85 copies, which up to the present time has remained the orlly atternpt to show the Codcx in its proper colors, and has become exceedingly difficult to procure so much so that it was only after seven years search that I was able to secure my own copy. In 1888 he reissued the Codex, uncolored, with the samc Icttcr-press, and in an edition of 100 copies. Ihis has also become scarce...
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