The research by Yu. V. Knorozov ‘Hieroglyphic Manuscripts of Maya’ was a continuation of his earlier work ‘The Writing of Mayas’ (1963). The author analyzed four preserved Mayan manuscripts: those of Dresden, Paris, Madrid, and the manuscript of Grolier. According to the author, “in spite of short and monotonous style of narration’, they provide rich material for studying the culture of ancient Maya, including their religious ideas, and ritual practices. Beside the publication of the texts of all four manuscripts, the book contains their translation into Russian, and broad research comments to them. All four manuscripts were of practical significance, they were used by countryside priests as reference books; they give us such a wide view of various aspects of the life of ancient and classical Maya, that they could be taken for a kind of encyclopedia. The value of those manuscripts depends on the fact that after the conquest the most part of Maya priests had been killed, manuscripts had been burnt to ashes, and the ancient written language was lost. Those four preserved manuscripts contain a detailed description of some rites, ceremonies, and divining, a ritual calendar, and lists of names of the gods and their spheres of power.