Codex Mexicanus caractere hieroglyphi

Codex Laud, p. 22- Lay-Out of Codex

THE LAY-OUT OF THE CODEX AND THE MISSING PAGES It is not easy to define the scope of Codex Laud. The document deals with many subjects, mainly to do with the passage through life, and with its dangers. The sections which are physically adjacent on the open sheets of the document do not always present any harmony of theme. However they are defined by special treatment of the pages in each section. The number of pages and the direction of reading them is made clear on our diagram.* The following description is only intended to serve as an outline guide for further study. The evidence for pages being missing lies in the arithmetic of the time counts of the two extreme sections of the frontal side. Fol. 1 is apparently at right-angles to the rest of the Codex. In the Mexican photographic edition by Martinez Marin this page has been rotated ninety degrees to the left in order that it can be the more easily understood, but in a facsimile this is not possible. The pictorial material shows the sun with a symbolic falling eagle descending into the dark clouds of sunset which are shown as darkness rising from the jaws of Death who is sacrificing a victim. On either side of the page are the jaws of earth and standing on them are four pairs of deities. They are accompanied by a numerical sequence unique in any Mexican codex. Four day signs are shown, and beside each is the numeral Twenty-five-days. This cannot be a numeral attached normally to a day, it must be a distance number. Yet whereas in the rest of the codex distance numbers lead from one day-sign to another it is not the case here. * See plate after p. 12