Painted by a single artist, the Códice Maya de México is the oldest surviving book in the Americas. Possibly created as a guidebook for a community’s spiritual leader, the Códice documents the movement of Venus across its cycles as Morning and Evening Star, a journey that takes 584 days from the vantage point of Earth and calculated in this book across 104 years.
The book provides a glimpse into how indigenous peoples understood the cosmos. Long believed to be a forgery, the book was finally authenticated in 2018 and is now considered one of only four surviving books created by the Maya before the arrival of Europeans.
Cool artifact. Who created it? Who found it? The article suggests that the book mysteriously appeared in a book collector’s library, leading to the supposition it might be fake. What journey did the book take from creation to modern times? What other secrets might it hold? What happens next?
