The Codex Perez: An ancient Mayan Hieroglyphic Book

Willard, Theodore Arthur (1962-1943)

Published by Arthur H Clark Company, Glendale, 1933

About this Item

10+[1 ad] pages with fold out facsimile of the codex at the back. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6 1/4") bound in original wrappers. Limited to 250 copies. The Codex Peresianus, or Codex Mexicanus, no. ii better known as the Codex Perez, a rare Mayan volume and reproduced here. It was discovered in 1859 Leon de Rosny, among a mass of old papers in the national library of France. It consists of eleven leaves, twenty-two pages, each 9 inces long and 5 1/4 inches wide. The writing is very much defaced, but was evidently of a highly artistic character, probably the most so of any manuscript known. Its origin is a complete mystery. The papers in which it was wrapped bore the name "Perez" in a Spanish hand of the seventeenth century, and hence the name "Peresianus" was given it. By order of the French minister of public instruction, ten photographic copies of this Codex, without reduction, were prepared for the use of scholars. None of them was placed on sale. There have been published but a few reproductions of the Codex Perez. The present reproduction is an absolutely exact photographic facsimile of the original. The only alterations that have been made are that the margins, entirely blank, have be reduced in size, and certain figures, clear in the original but too faded to reproduce photographically, have been strengthened with dotted lines in order that they be not lost in the reproduction. The figures are exactly the size of the original, and the format of the original has been followed identically, even to the accordion-pleat fold which permits the book to be read across in sequence, as was the Mayan custom. The original is on a fibrous paper made from the leaves of the maguey plant and coated with a whitish, durable plaster. Condition: Some pencil underlining, previous owner's name to front wrapper else a very good copy.

Seller Inventory # A0579

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Codex Perez: An ancient Mayan Hieroglyphic Book
• Publisher: Arthur H Clark Company, Glendale
• Publication Date: 1933
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: Limited Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Anthropology