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[MAYA] Ieroglificheskie rukopisi Maia [i.e. The hieroglyphic manuscripts of Maya]

Knorozov, Yu.V.

Item #2502

St. Petersburg: Academy of Science, 1975. 272 p. 25,8×16,8 cm. Original illustrated wrappers. Very good condition.

First edition.
Yuri Knorozov (1922–1999) was a Soviet and Russian linguist, epigraphist, and ethnologist. He is best known for the key role he played in the decipherment of the Maya script, the writing system of the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

A preliminary report on the decipherment was published by Knorozov in the journal Soviet Ethnography in 1952. This contributed to Knorozov’s transfer to the N. N. Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked from August 1953 until the end of his life. In 1955, he defended his thesis “Diego de Landa’s Report on Affairs in Yucatan as a Historical and Ethnographic Source”, for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences, bypassing the candidate’s degree.
In the same year, a summary article “The Writing System of the Ancient Maya” and a translation of “Report on Affairs in Yucatan” were published. In 1956, he reported on the results of his work at the International Congress of Americanists in Copenhagen, but then remained banned from traveling abroad until 1990. In 1963, the monograph “Writing of the Mayan Indians” was published with a dictionary and a catalog of signs (540 units). He was awarded the medal “For Distinguished Labor” (1967). In 1975, this book
“Hieroglyphic Manuscripts of the Maya” was published (translation and study of all surviving manuscripts).

The book contains of the texts of all the surviving manuscripts – co-called ‘Dresden manuscript’, ‘Paris manuscript’, ‘Madrid manuscript’ and ‘Grollier manuscript’ – with the line by line translation by Knorozov. Also his comments on the preservation, provenance and significant details of the copies are given. The separate chapter is dedicated to the analysis of activities of the gods in manuscripts with the catalogue of gods responsible for agricultural practices (25 names) and fishing and hunting (5). The characteristics of the Mayan life are given in the chapters of their dwellings, the life circle, structure of the society. The separate sub-chapters describe the magic in Mayan society, as well as medicine and other aspects of life.

Price: $750.00