An Unique Almanac in the Codex Madrid. A Mistakological Study

Abstract

The study of mistakes in Maya and, with certain evidence as well, in Mixtec and Nahua written sources, has entered a new stage when F. Lounsbury's study "A Palenque King and the Planet Jupiter" (1989: 246-259, esp. 246-248) appeared by opening a new subfield of Mayanist and Mexicanist research, which I've named "mistakology" in private use. Before, mistakes were recognized and just corrected as "writer's errors", since, it is obvious that mistakes --often, if not ever- are intended and meaningful and their ideas have to be analysed. Evidence for this is accumulating, and this especially from the study of Codex Madrid (CM) (Jüngel, 1991 & 1992), where countless mistakes are what has lead Mayanists to underrate the reliability of this document.