"According to the early sources" (thus: Michael Coe) "the Maya books contained histories, prophecies, songs, ‘sciences,’ and genealogies …: thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning and literature was recorded." The three which survived the onslaught of the Spanish civilizers "are written on long strips of bark paper, folded like screens and covered with gesso. … [Of these three] the most beautiful and earliest … [is] the Dresden Codex."