Una reconsideración de la procedencia del Códice Madrid

Abstract

On two pages of the Maya hieroglyphic manuscript known as the Madrid Codex are found vestiges of European paper. Visible on one of those fragments are handwritten words in Latin and Spanish. Scholars first proposed that the European paper had been incorporated into the substrate of the Maya codex during manufacture, and that the codex was a post-conquest creation. A re-analysis of the codex has shown, however, that the European paper became adhered to the codex after it was manufactured and painted. Another study has argued that it is a fragment of a Bull of the Santa Cruzada and that its presence helps to identify the approximate year and place when the Maya codex fell into the hands of Spanish friars. This article will show that argument is incorrect and that the European writing found in the Madrid Codex does not clarify the provenience of this important document.