John Montgomery’s Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs,[1] which I discovered on the Amazon only a week ago, arrived in this morning’s post. The book’s publication date shows how long I have not touched the subject that has fascinated me since childhood. I ordered the book to rekindle the old flame. And the book is marvelous, indeed. Featuring more than one-thousand and two-hundred hieroglyphs, it is the key to the language already deciphered. When I first discovered Maya hieroglyphs, many misconceptions about the writing system and the culture behind it were quite entrenched. It took a revolution in the understanding of the Maya to turn things around. Anyhow, now I have to figure out what to do with the book, beside stare at the hieroglyphs themselves. When Renata Vrtarić saw the book this morning at Klaudio’s, she offered a useful hint in this direction: “Now I know how your paintings will be changing!”

Footnote

1. New York, Hippocrene Books, 2002.