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Today in Writing History July 12, 1562: Fray Diego de Landa, Bishop of Yucatán, burned the sacred idols and books of the Maya. There were many Mayan books in print at the time of the conquest. They were produced as codices, or folding books, printed on bark paper by professional scribes and were the main written record of Maya civilization. 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.” There are four known Mayan codices still in existence.

#maya #codex #colonialism #genocide #bookburning #censorship #indigenous #freespeech @bookstadon