Bishop Diego de Landa Burns the Maya Codices at Mani
On a single day in 1562, a Franciscan bishop destroys the accumulated astronomical, historical, and religious writing of generations of Maya scribes
Quick facts
- Location
- Mani, Yucatan
- Date
- 12 July 1562
- Codices burned
- More than 40
- Codices surviving today
- 4 (Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Grolier)
What happened
Diego de Landa arrived in the Yucatan in 1549 as a Franciscan friar tasked with converting the Maya to Christianity. Believing he had uncovered a subversive continuation of native religious practice among converts, and after failing to suppress it through preaching, Landa organized an inquisition-style campaign of interrogation and torture. On 12 July 1562, at the church in the town of Mani, he ordered the burning of more than forty Maya hieroglyphic codices along with more than 20,000 painted images and stone monuments. Landa's own later account states plainly, 'We found many books with these letters, and because they contained nothing that was free from superstition and the devil's trickery, we burnt them, which the Indians greatly lamented.' His methods drew condemnation from fellow priests, and he was recalled to Spain to answer for his actions; part of his defense was his own 1566 manuscript, 'Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan,' which paradoxically preserved detailed descriptions of the Maya calendar, writing, and customs that Landa's own bonfire had destroyed the original record of.
Why it matters
Only four Maya codices are known to have survived into the present, the Dresden, Madrid, Paris, and Grolier codices, meaning the Mani auto-da-fe destroyed the overwhelming majority of surviving Maya written history, astronomy, and religious knowledge in a single day. Ironically, Landa's own account of Maya culture, written to defend his actions, became one of the essential documents modern epigraphers used centuries later to help decipher the very glyphs he destroyed.
How we know
Landa's actions are documented in his own written account and corroborated by contemporary Spanish colonial records of the inquiry into his conduct that followed.
Sources
- Joshua J. Mark, World History Encyclopedia. Maya Civilization · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- mayacodices.org (Maya Codices Database, Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies). Discovery and Content · General sourcemayacodices.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match).
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