Maya Codex and Torah Brought Together in a Dresden Exhibition

Two significant texts in cultural history are now brought together in an exhibition in Dresden. Under the title “World Lines of Writing. The ‘Maya Codex’ and a Torah for Dresden,” the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB), the Dresden City Museum, and the Jewish Community are showcasing manuscripts from various cultural traditions.

Exhibition Highlights Commonalities

“The Maya Codex and the Torah scroll show that people in different places have asked similar questions about origin, time, order, and their place in the world,” emphasized curator Jahna Dahms. The exhibition deliberately draws attention to commonalities.

A Torah scroll is currently being written live in Dresden

The exhibition accompanies the public writing of a Torah—also known as Tora or Thora—in the writing pavilion in front of the Dresden City Museum and focuses on writing as a religious and cultural practice, according to organizers. The exhibition is on view at the SLUB Book Museum through August 5, with free admission.

Dresden’s Mayor for Culture, Annekatrin Klepsch, spoke of a special moment for the city: Visitors can “experience valuable manuscripts from two religious communities at the SLUB and learn more about their origins and use” through the original texts.

Exhibition in the Year of Jewish Culture in Saxony

SLUB Director General Katrin Stump highlighted Hebrew manuscripts from the 13th to the 18th centuries and Jewish prints in the library’s collection, some of which come from the Electoral Library. To mark the “Year of Jewish Culture” in Saxony, significant original pieces are now on display once again.

According to the organizers, the exhibition uses documents such as the Torah, Machzor, and Haftarah to convey Jewish culture and religious practice in the past and present. In addition to a historic Torah from the 18th century, sections of the newly created scroll are also on display. Scribe Joshua Dias will be present in person at the opening.

The Dresden Maya Codex is considered the best-preserved of the four known Maya manuscripts worldwide. It was created between approximately 1300 and 1521 on the Yucatán Peninsula and consists of 39 sheets of bark, originally folded as a leporello, which are displayed in two strips with a total length of 3.56 meters between glass panels in the treasure chamber of the SLUB’s Book Museum.

Among other things, the codex contains ritual and divination calendars, astronomical tables, and depictions of deities.