The Codices They Burned for Christ

In July 1562, Bishop Diego de Landa burned 27 Mayan codices and over 5,000 ritual objects in the Yucatán. He called it 'the auto-da-fé of the idols.' Then he wrote the Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán — the primary source for everything we know about Mayan religion. The books he burned contained astronomical tables more accurate than European ones of the same era. We know this because fragments survived in European libraries, hidden by monks who recognized their value. The rest is ash.