Before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, the Aztecs eradicated many Mayan works and sought to depict themselves as the true rulers through a fake history and newly written texts.[6]
There were many books in existence at the time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán in the 16th century; most were destroyed by the Catholic priests.[7] Many in Yucatán were ordered destroyed by Diego de Landa in July 1562.[8] Bishop de Landa hosted a mass book burning in the town of Maní in the Yucatán peninsula.[9] De Landa wrote:
We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction.
Such codices were the primary written records of Maya civilization, together with the many inscriptions on stone monuments and stelae that survived. Their range of subject matter in all likelihood embraced more topics than those recorded in stone and buildings, and was more like what is found on painted ceramics (the so-called ‘ceramic codex’). Alonso de Zorita wrote that in 1540 he saw numerous such books in the Guatemalan highlands that “recorded their history for more than eight hundred years back, and that were interpreted for me by very ancient Indians”.[10]
Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas lamented when he found out that such books were destroyed: “These books were seen by our clergy, and even I saw part of those that were burned by the monks, apparently because they thought [they] might harm the Indians in matters concerning religion, since at that time they were at the beginning of their conversion.” The last codices destroyed were those of Nojpetén, Guatemala in 1697, the last city conquered in the Americas.[11] With their destruction, access to the history of the Maya and opportunity for insight into some key areas of Maya life was greatly diminished.
Three fully Mayan codices have been preserved. These are:
The Dresden Codex, also known as the Codex Dresdensis (74 pages, 3.56 metres [11.7 feet]);[12] dating to the 11th or 12th century.[13]
The Madrid Codex, also known as the Tro-Cortesianus Codex (112 pages, 6.82 metres [22.4 feet]) dating to the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology (circa 900–1521 AD).;[14]
The Paris Codex, also known as the Peresianus Codex (22 pages, 1.45 metres [4.8 feet]) tentatively dated to around 1450, in the Late Postclassic period (AD 1200–1525)[14]
A fourth codex, lacking hieroglyphs, is Maya-Toltec rather than Maya. It remained controversial until 2015, when extensive research finally authenticated it:
The Grolier Codex, also known as the Sáenz Codex (10 pages) or Códice Maya de México.[15][16][17]
Where did you extract that?
I’d like to see the references to 6 and 7.
I did not know there were books in the new world prior to Europeans - thank you for educating me on that. You were right