Joe Rogan Experience #2563 - Dan Richards · Aired Oct 8, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
A Spanish friar had Mesoamerican codices brought together and burned, destroying almost all of them.
The finding
What the evidence shows
Spanish clergy did destroy most Mesoamerican codices, and Friar Diego de Landa ordered a mass book burning at Maní in 1562. But it was many priests and friars over decades, not one friar, and Landa's burning was in Yucatán and covered Maya books. Aztec codices were destroyed by other clergy elsewhere. Only four Maya codices and a small number of pre-Columbian Aztec-area codices survive. A scholarly source showing that a single friar was responsible for destroying nearly all Mesoamerican codices would flip this.
Read the supporting source · en.wikipedia.org ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that a Spanish friar had Mesoamerican codices brought together and burned, destroying almost all of them?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. Spanish clergy did destroy most Mesoamerican codices, and Friar Diego de Landa ordered a mass book burning at Maní in 1562. But it was many priests and friars over decades, not one friar, and Landa's burning was in Yucatán and covered Maya books. Dan Richards said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2563 - Dan Richards, aired Oct 8, 2026, at 45:11. The supporting source is en.wikipedia.org, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
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