A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882)

I read A Study of the Manuscript Troano for the claims a later writer can set beside the other manuscript notices on this site. Cyrus Thomas, Ph.D., is the author. The title page places the paper in the Department of the Interior, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, J. W. Powell in charge, with an introduction by D. G. Brinton, M.D. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1882. The book is a government publication of that year. The quotations below are short excerpts. Page numbers are the printed pages of this edition. The title page itself has no number.

The study does not discuss Atlantis. What it does give is the manuscript itself: where Brasseur found it, what it is made of, what Thomas thinks it was for, the people he thinks it was made for, and the century in which he thinks it was written. He reads it as a ritual calendar running through a grand cycle of 312 years, with pictures of ordinary work mixed into the dates. He puts the people in the interior, away from the sea, in the section of the peninsula known as Peten, and he puts the writing in the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century, before the fall of Mayapan.

The book at a glance

• Title: A Study of the Manuscript Troano.
• Author: Cyrus Thomas, Ph.D. Introduction by D. G. Brinton, M.D.
• Edition I read: Department of the Interior. U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. J. W. Powell in charge. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1882.
• What he claims: The manuscript was found about the year 1866, at Madrid, in the library of the Royal Historical Academy, by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, and named Manuscript Troano for its possessor, Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano. Thomas cannot find an exact day of the discovery. Bancroft says about 1865. Thomas, from Brasseur’s introduction, puts it at least as late as 1866. The original is a strip of maguey paper about 14 feet (4.27 meters) long and 9 inches wide, folded fan-like into thirty-five folds, painted on both sides, seventy pages, in black, red, blue, and brown, on a white paint or varnish. It was reproduced in facsimile by the Commission Scientifique du Mexique, Brasseur editing, under the French Government. Thomas reads the work as a ritual calendar. Day columns and numerals, fully one-half of the written portion, are dates running through one grand cycle of 312 years. The Ahau or Katun was a period of 24 years. The series commenced with a Cauac year. The figures also show habits and occupations: the chase by gins and traps, honey, ropes, idols of clay and of wood, maize dibbled five grains to a hill, cacao, cotton, and a climbing bean. The people were interior, away from the sea, peaceable, and sedentary. He thinks the original, if the surviving copy is a copy, was written about the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century, before the fall of Mayapan and before the Cocomes brought in Aztec soldiers. He thinks Brasseur was right that the work originated in Peten. On one plate-page he says pictures of the rainy season were probably what early writers supposed were pictures of the great floods.

Findings worth setting beside other writers

• The find. About 1866, Madrid, library of the Royal Historical Academy. Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. Named for Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano. Nothing more was known of its history, and the last owner did not say where or how he obtained it. Thomas still takes the work itself as enough to dispel suspicion of a forgery. His footnote keeps Bancroft’s “about 1865” and his own “at least as late as 1866” (p. 1).
• The object. Maguey paper, about 14 feet (4.27 meters) by 9 inches, white ground, figures in black, red, blue, and brown, thirty-five folds, seventy pages, both sides painted. A chromolithographic facsimile, Commission Scientifique du Mexique, Brasseur the editor, under the auspices of the French Government (p. 1).
• What it is for. A ritual or religious calendar, to guide priests in festivals, ceremonies, and other duties. The day columns and numerals are dates through one grand cycle of 312 years. Much of the hieroglyphic text is ritualistic, simple formulas. The Ahau or Katun is 24 years. The series commenced with a Cauac year, where the usual supposition had been a Kan year (preface, pp. v, ix).
• The people and the place. Prepared for people living in the interior, away from the sea-shore, because nothing in it relates to fishermen or their vessels. He believes it pertained to a comparatively well wooded section. Peaceable, not addicted to war, sedentary, living chiefly by agriculture, and also by gins and traps and the chase. Twelve plates, VIII to XIX, are the chase. Ten, I* to X*, are the apiarists and honey-gatherers. Ten, XXIV to XXXIII, are rains, storms, and agricultural pursuits. Brasseur was right, he thinks, that it originated in Peten (preface, pp. v, vi, ix).
• The century. The original, if the one now in existence is a copy, was probably written about the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century. The tribe was then peaceable, quiet, and comparatively happy, which carries the date back to a time preceding the fall of Mayapan, and before the introduction of Aztec soldiers by the Cocomes (preface, pp. viii, ix).
• Customs he reads off the pictures. Maize dibbled with a curved stick, five grains to a hill. Cacao, cotton, and a climbing bean on a stake. Male dress a strip of cloth, probably cotton, around the loins. Female dress a skirt to the ankles. Feet always bare. Married women’s hair not allowed to hang down. Mats alone as seats. Stone and wooden houses, generally with thatched roofs, always with wooden supports, of a temporary character. Idols of clay and of wood. Two implements he takes for metal, a hatchet and a sharp-pointed tool like shears. No figure of a bow in the entire work. Spears or darts thrown by a kind of hook. One scene of a life taken, apparently a slave, by decapitation, arms bound, which he does not treat as the sacrifice described by the early writers. The cross used as a religious emblem, and in some cases a bird with it, as at Palenque (preface, pp. vi to viii).
• How he reads the writing. Figures move from right to left, and the plates should be taken that way, at least by pairs. Characters, as a general rule, stand in columns, top downward, columns from left to right. They are to a certain extent phonetic, and they are not true alphabetic signs. He calls them syllabic, with some ideographic and some abbreviated pictures, and, as the work of priests, hieratic. Landa’s alphabet, he thinks, picked simple elements out of compound characters and supposed they were letters. The day characters are in the manuscript substantially as Landa gave them. No month characters are found in this work, though they are common in the Dresden Codex (preface, p. viii).
• Flood pictures. On the page explaining plates XVII to XIX, plates XXIV to XXVIII appear to him to relate to the rainy season, or rains, storms, and clouds. He thinks it quite probable that pictures of this kind, seen by the early writers, were the ones they supposed related to the great floods which inundated that country (p. 101).

The manuscript, Madrid, and the strip of maguey

Chapter I is “The Manuscript and its Character.”

This manuscript was found about the year 1866, at Madrid, Spain, by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, while on a visit to the library of the Royal Historical Academy

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 1

It was named by him Manuscript Troano, in honor of its possessor, Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano.

So far as I am aware, nothing more is known in reference to its history

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 1

They were not even informed by its last owner where or how he obtained it. In ordinary cases, Thomas says, that would arouse suspicions as to genuineness. In this case the work itself is sufficient to dispel them. The footnote is his own caution on the year.

I cannot find that the exact date of the discovery is given anywhere.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 1

Bancroft says about 1865. A careful examination of Brasseur’s introduction satisfies Thomas that it was at least as late as 1866.

The work was reproduced in facsimile by a chromolithographic process, by the Commission Scientifique du Mexique, under the auspices of the French Government, Brasseur being the editor.

The original is written on a strip of Maguey paper about 14 feet (4.27 meters) long and 9 inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a white paint or varnish

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 1

The characters and figures are painted in black, red, blue, and brown.

It is folded fan-like into thirty-five folds, presenting, when these are pressed together, the appearance of an ordinary octavo volume.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 1

The hieroglyphics and figures cover both sides of the paper, forming seventy pages

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 1

A ritual calendar of 312 years

He sums the investigation in numbered results. Dr. D. G. Brinton, of Philadelphia, contributed the notice of the Maya manuscripts which stands as the introduction. I use Thomas’s own results here.

That the work was intended chiefly as a ritual or religious calendar to guide the priests in the observance of religious festivals, and their numerous ceremonies and other duties.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. v

The very large number of day columns and numerals form fully one-half of what may be called the written portion.

are simply dates which appear to run through one entire grand cycle of 312 years, fixing the time when festivals should be held and other religious observances take place.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. v

Much of the text proper, the portion in hieroglyphics or written characters, is purely ritualistic, consisting of very simple formulas. The figures in the spaces are in some cases symbolical, in others simple pictographs, and in quite a number they refer to religious ceremonies. In many instances they relate to the habits, customs, and occupations of the people. Their method of capturing game was, as Herrera stated, chiefly by gins and traps. He also lists the incidents of the chase, the business of the apiarists, making ropes, the manufacture of idols, agricultural pursuits, and the occupation and duties of the females. Even here, he says, the religious element pervades everything.

The eleventh result is the length of the periods.

I think we find conclusive evidence in the work that the Ahau or Katun was a period of 24 years, and the great cycle of 312

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. ix

the series commenced with a Cauac instead of a Kan year, as has been usually supposed.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. ix

Interior people, Peten, and the fourteenth century

That the work appertained to and was prepared for a people living in the interior of the country, away from the sea-shore.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. v

This is inferred from the fact that nothing is found in it relating to fishermen, or their vessels.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. v

There are reasons, he says, for believing that it pertained to a comparatively well wooded section.

That the people of the section where it was prepared were peaceable, not addicted to war; and were sedentary, supporting themselves chiefly by agricultural products

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vi

They relied upon their gins and traps and the chase to supply animal food. Twelve of the plates, VIII to XIX, are devoted to that subject. Ten, marked I* to X*, are the business, festivals, and so on, of the apiarists and honey-gatherers. Ten, XXIV to XXXIII, are rains, storms, and agricultural pursuits.

The execution and character of the work bear testimony that the people were comparatively well advanced in the arts of civilized life. There is nothing here, he says, to warrant the glowing descriptions of their art and refinement given by some of the earlier as well as more modern writers, nor even to correspond with what might be inferred from the architectural remains in some parts of Yucatan.

We find in the work indications of stone and wooden houses, but generally with thatched roofs

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vi

At least they always have wooden supports, and are of a temporary character.

The date of the writing is the tenth result.

That the work (the original, if the one now in existence be a copy) was probably written about the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. viii

This conclusion is reached first from internal evidence alone, and second from that together with historical evidence.

The tribe appears to have been at the time in a peaceable, quiet, and comparatively happy condition, which will carry us back to a time preceding the fall of Mayapan, and before the introduction of Aztec soldiers by the Cocomes.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. ix

I think Brasseur was right in supposing that this work originated in that section of the peninsula known as Peten.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. ix

The preface is signed Cyrus Thomas.

Dress, maize, idols, and one killing

The dress of the males appears to have consisted of a strip of cloth, probably cotton, passed once or twice around the loins, with one end hanging down behind and the other in front, or a small flap in front and the ends behind.

That of the females consisted of a skirt fastened at the waist and hanging down to the ankles.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vi

A kind of broad anklets and wristlets appear to have been quite common with the better class, but the feet were always bare. The women parted their hair in the middle. That of the matrons or married women was not allowed to hang down, while that of the younger or unmarried ones was allowed to hang in long locks behind. Mats alone seem to have been used as seats.

The pottery, so far as he can judge by what is shown, and he says that in this prefatory statement he confines his remarks strictly to what seems to be shown, unless otherwise expressly stated, was of an inferior grade as to form and decoration. Pots with legs were common. Some censers in the form of a snake’s neck and head are the best specimens represented.

In planting their corn (maize) it was dibbled in with a curved stick, five grains to a hill being the established number.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vii

While at this work they wore a peculiar head-covering, apparently a kind of matting. The other cultivated plants noticed are cacao, cotton, and a leguminous species, probably a climbing bean, as it is supported by a stake. From a number of the figures he judges that the growing corn was subject to the attacks of numerous insects, represented as worms or snakes, which ate foliage, ear, and root, and was frequently injured by severe storms, and that the planted grains were pulled up by birds and a small quadruped. Crops were also subject to injury by severe droughts, accompanied by great heat.

The production of honey seems to have been a very important industry in the section, but so far he has succeeded in interpreting few of the figures which refer to it. Rope-making, or possibly weaving, is represented on Plate XI*, a very simple process, which he describes later in the paper.

Their chief mechanical work, as I judge from this Manuscript, was the manufacture of idols, some being made of clay and others carved of wood.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vii

Two implements used in making their wooden images appear, from the figures, to have been of metal, one a hatchet, the other sharp-pointed and shaped much like a pair of shears.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vii

Spears and arrows, if such they be, for there is no figure of a bow in the entire work, or darts, are the only implements of warfare shown. The spears or darts seem to have been often thrown by means of a kind of hook, and guided by a piece of wood with a notch at the end.

The fifth result is a single scene of a killing.

The taking of life, apparently of a slave, is indicated in one place, but whether as a sacrificial offering is uncertain.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vii

It is evidently not in the manner described by the early writers, as in this case it is by decapitation with a machete or hatchet, the arms being bound behind the back

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. vii

What he presumes to be a yoke is fixed on the back of the head. This is the only thing in the manuscript, except holding captives by the hair, as in the Mexican codices, which can possibly be construed to indicate human sacrifice. In the Dresden Codex, human sacrifice in the usual way, by opening the breast, is clearly indicated.

Characters, the cross, and Palenque

We learn from the figures in the Manuscript that the cross in some of its forms was in use among this people as a religious emblem

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. viii

The bird was in some cases brought into connection with it, as at Palenque.

On the written characters, the movement of the figures is from the right to the left, and the plates should be taken in this way, at least by pairs. As a general rule the characters are in columns, to be read from the top downwards, columns following each other from left to right. When they are in lines they are to be read from left to right and by lines from the top downwards, and lines are used only where it is not convenient to place the characters in columns. He thinks this can be demonstrated from the manuscript. There is no fixed rule for the arrangement of the parts of compound characters. The few he has deciphered satisfactorily appear to have the parts generally arranged in an order nearly or quite the reverse of that in which the characters themselves are placed.

That the characters, while to a certain extent phonetic, are not true alphabetic signs, but syllabic.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. viii

Even this will not hold of them all. Some appear to be ideographic and others simply abbreviated pictorial representations. Most of the characters are compound, and the parts more or less abbreviated. As the writing is certainly the work of the priests, he says we may correctly term it hieratic.

Landa’s alphabet, he thinks, is the result of an attempt to pick out of the compound characters their simple elements, which Landa erroneously supposed represented letters. The day characters are found in the manuscript substantially as given by Landa, but appear to have been derived from an earlier age, and to have lost in part their original signification.

No month characters are found in this work, though common in the Dresden Codex.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. viii

Plates, a deer’s head, and the floods the early writers supposed

In the explanation of figures on plates XVII to XIX, the lowest division of plate XVII shows a woman piercing her tongue.

In the lowest division of Plate XVII we observe a woman piercing her tongue with a maguey leaf, while in front is an incense-burner.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 101

The two figures in the upper division of plate XIV are, he says, doubtless Chacs selected for the occasion, carrying to the festival the implements of the chase and a sun image. A character under another figure on that plate is probably the trap, or rather the trigger, used in snaring game.

We observe that the left-hand figure of the lower division of Plate XVI is bearing in his hands a Kan symbol on which is placed a deer's head.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 101

He sees the same combination in the fifth transverse line of the title-page, a deer’s head on a Kan symbol, emblems of their chief means of subsistence, maize and venison.

Figures in the middle division of plate XVIII are symbolical, the positions being unnatural. He is inclined to believe the upper figure denotes a supposed phantom which, according to the superstitions of the Indians, flew through the air, destroying game as it passed. He calls this a mere supposition based wholly on the figures. The lower figure of that plate probably represents a priest clothed in animal skin, or an idol. Black and white figures on plate XIX are grinding paints to be used in their ceremonies. The black is the same personage as the right-hand figure in the upper division of plate VI, Chic-chac-Chob. The white figure in the lower division is the same as those on plates XXII and XXIII, which he has decided represent Uayeyab idols, and here it signifies a priest dressed to represent this idol.

Plates XXIV to XXVIII appear to relate to one subject, the rainy season, or rains, storms, and clouds.

I think it quite probable that pictures of this kind seen by the early writers on the manuscripts which they inspected, were the ones they supposed related to the great floods which inundated that country.

Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano (1882), p. 101

Where I leave the book

The body of the paper is a discussion of the Maya count of time and then an explanation of the plates. I have used the preface, where he prints his numbered results, the first page of Chapter I, where he describes the strip and the find, and page 101, where he comes to the pictures early writers took for floods. I am not going to retell each plate, or the tables of years.

What I can set beside the other notices is this. The manuscript was found about 1866 at Madrid by Brasseur de Bourbourg and named for Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano. It is maguey, about 14 feet (4.27 meters) by 9 inches, thirty-five folds, seventy painted pages. Thomas reads it as a priests’ ritual calendar through a grand cycle of 312 years, with the Ahau or Katun at 24 years, beginning on a Cauac year. The people are interior, away from the sea, peaceable and sedentary, planting maize five grains to a hill, keeping bees, making idols, and he places the origin in Peten. He dates the writing, or its original, to the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century, before the fall of Mayapan. The characters are syllabic and hieratic, and he does not take Landa’s alphabet as letters. Month signs are absent. A search of this study does not find the name Atlantis.

Another page on this site prints a different reading of the Troano manuscript. The date and the place in this review are the ones Thomas prints in 1882.

Where to read it

The copy I used is Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano, with an introduction by D. G. Brinton. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, J. W. Powell in charge. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1882.

FAQ

Where and when was the manuscript found?

About the year 1866, at Madrid, Spain, by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in the library of the Royal Historical Academy. He named it Manuscript Troano for Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano. Thomas cannot find an exact day. Bancroft says about 1865. Thomas puts the find at least as late as 1866 (p. 1).

What is the book made of?

A strip of maguey paper about 14 feet (4.27 meters) long and 9 inches wide, covered with a white paint or varnish, the figures painted in black, red, blue, and brown. Folded fan-like into thirty-five folds. Hieroglyphics and figures on both sides, seventy pages (p. 1).

When does Thomas think it was written, and where?

Probably about the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century, the original if the surviving one is a copy. The quiet condition of the tribe carries him to a time preceding the fall of Mayapan, and before the Cocomes introduced Aztec soldiers. He thinks Brasseur was right that it originated in Peten, among people of the interior, away from the sea-shore (preface, pp. v, viii, ix).

What calendar does he find in it?

A ritual calendar. The day columns are dates through one grand cycle of 312 years. The Ahau or Katun was a period of 24 years. The series commenced with a Cauac year (preface, pp. v, ix).

Does this study tell of Atlantis, or of a flood in the manuscript?

It does not discuss Atlantis. On p. 101 he reads plates XXIV to XXVIII as the rainy season, and he thinks pictures of that kind were the ones early writers supposed related to the great floods which inundated that country.

Related on this site

1. Troano MS/Madrid Codex: a page already on this site that prints another reading of the Troano manuscript. The find, the strip, the 312 years, Peten, and the fourteenth century in this review are Thomas’s, from the 1882 study.
2. The fall of Atlantis: a page on this site that points to the Troano manuscript among its sources. Thomas’s own place for the book is Peten, and his own date for the writing is the middle or latter half of the fourteenth century.

Sources

The book

• Cyrus Thomas, A Study of the Manuscript Troano. Introduction by D. G. Brinton. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, J. W. Powell in charge. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1882.

Pages used

• Title page. The survey, Powell, Brinton, Washington, 1882.
• Preface, pp. v to ix. The numbered results. The 312-year cycle, the interior, the plates, the dress and the maize, the fourteenth century, the Ahau of 24 years, Cauac, Peten, Mayapan.
• Chapter I, p. 1. Madrid about 1866, Don Juan de Tro y Ortolano, the maguey strip, thirty-five folds, seventy pages.
• P. 101. Plate XVII, the Kan symbol and the deer’s head, and the pictures he thinks early writers took for great floods.