The Dresden Codex, also known as the Codex Dresdensis, is a pre-
Columbian Maya book of the eleventh or twelfth century of the
Yucatecan Maya in Chichén Itzá. This Maya codex is believed to
be a copy of an original text of some three or four hundred
years earlier. It is the oldest book written in the Americas
known to historians. Of the hundreds of books that were used in
Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest, it is one of only 15
that have survived to the present day. The Dresden Codex
consists of 39 sheets, inscribed on both sides, with an overall
length of 3.56 metres (11.7 feet). Originally, the manuscript
had been folded in accordion folds. Today, it is exhibited in
two parts, each of them approximately 1.8 metres (5.9 feet)
long, at the museum of the Saxon State Library in Dresden,
Germany. The document has played a key role in the decipherment
of Mayan hieroglyphs. Johann Christian Götze, Director of the
Royal Library at Dresden, purchased the codex from a private
owner in Vienna in 1739. How it came