CHAPTER I. 



THE NUMERALS IN THE DRESDEN CODEX, 



Before entering upon the discussion of tlie topic indicated it may 

 be well to give a brief notice oi' the history and character of this 

 aboriginal manuscript, quoting from Dr. Forstemann's introduction 

 to the photolithographic copy of the codex, ' he having had an op- 

 portunity to study the original for a number of years in the Royal 

 Public Library of Dresden, of which he is chief librarian: 



"Unfortunately, the history of the manuscript begins no further 

 back than 1739. The man to whom we owe the discovery and per- 

 haps the preservation of the codex was Johann Christian Gotze, son 

 of an evangelical pastor, born at Hohburg, near Wurzen, in the 

 electorate of Saxony. He became a Catholic, and received his edu- 

 cation first at Vienna, then in Rome; became first chaplain of the 

 King of Poland and elector of Saxony; later on, papal prothonotary ; 

 presided over the Royal Library at Dresden from 1734, and died 

 holding this i)()sitiiiii. i^rcatly i-steemed for learning and integrity, 

 July 5, 1749. This sl<i.'tcli is takon fi-om his obituary notice in Neue 

 Zeitungen von gelchrten Sachen, Nr. 03, Leipzig, 1749. In his ca- 

 pacity as librarian he went to Italy four times, and brought thence 

 rich collections of books and manuscripts for the Dresden library. 

 One (if these journeys took place in 1739, and ccinnqniui;- its litfrary 

 results wi' ha\-(:' accux'ate information from a niaiiusciijit. in (ir)lzc"s 

 handwriting, whicii is found in the archives of the Rdval Pulilic 

 Library, under A, Vol. II, No. 10, and bears the title: " Books con- 

 signed to me for the Royal Library in January, 1740.' Under No. 



300 we read: 'An invaluable Mexican 1 k with hieroglyphic 



figures.-' This is the same cndcx which \\i' lici'c rciiroduce. 



"Gotze also was the first totiring thcexistiMicc of tlie manuscript to 

 puT)lic notice. In 1744 he published at Dresden The Ciiriosities of 

 the Royal Library at Dresden, First Collection. As showing what 

 value Gotze attributed to this manuscript, the very first page of the 

 first volume of this work, which is of great merit and still highly 

 useful, begins as follows: ' 1. A Mexican book with unknown char- 

 acters and hieroglyphic figures, written on both sides and painted 

 in all sorts of colors, in long octavo, laid orderly in folds of 39 

 leaves, which, when s])road out lon^-thwise, make more than (i yards.' 



'The work here referral In is .ntitlid Hie Mayahandschrift tier Konigliehen 

 offentlichen Bibliothek zn linsilcn, lirraiisj^iM^iben von Prof. Dr. E. F(ir.steiii;uin, 

 Hofrat und Oberbibliothekar. It contains, besides the cliromolitho>;raiihs of (lie 

 74 plates, an introduction published at Leipzig;. 1880, 4°. 



