Four surviving Maya codices are generally accepted as authentic.
These rare screenfold books are the Dresden Codex, Madrid Codex, Paris Codex, and Maya Codex of Mexico. They were made from bark paper coated for writing and preserve information about astronomy, calendars, ritual practice, divination, and Maya religious thought.
The number is so small because Spanish colonial authorities and missionaries destroyed many Indigenous books. The best-known episode occurred in 1562, when Bishop Diego de Landa ordered Maya manuscripts burned at Maní in Yucatán. Other codices disappeared through warfare, humidity, insects, looting, and centuries of neglect.
The fourth manuscript was long called the Grolier Codex and was disputed by scholars after appearing in the twentieth century. Scientific and historical studies led Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History to recognize it as authentic in 2018; it is now called the Maya Codex of Mexico. Thus, “four” reflects the modern scholarly count, not the number of Maya books that originally existed.