Fray Juan de Torquemada

Juan de Torquemada was a Franciscan friar, active as missionary in Spanish colonial Mexico and considered the leading Franciscan chronicler of his generation. Administrator, engineer, architect and ethnographer, he is most famous for his monumental work commonly known as Monarqua indiana , a survey of the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of New Spain together with an account of their conversion to Christianity, first published in Spain in 1615 and republished in 1723. Monarquia Indiana was the prime text of Mexican history, and was destined to influence all subsequent chronicles until the twentieth century. It was used by later historians, the Franciscan Augustin de Vetancurt and most importantly by eighteenthcentury Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero. No English translation of this work has ever been published.

There are few firm biographical details concerning Juan de Torquemada, most of which have to be deduced from his own work. Even basic information is subject to uncertainty and controversy. Born at Torquemada, Palencia, north central Spain, at an unknown date before 1566 he was brought by his parents to New Spain probably while still a child. He took the Franciscan habit, as is generally agreed, in 1579, and pursued a course of studies in Latin, theology, philosophy and Nahuatl. Brief notices in his own works put him at the convent in Tlacopan in 1582 and at the convent in Chiauhtla the presumption being that these relate to his novitiate. It is uncertain if he began his studies at the convento mayor de San Francisco in Mexico City, but it is presumed that part at least of his studies were conducted while resident at the convent of Santiago, Tlatelolco. Among his teachers he names fray Juan Bautista and Antonio Valeriano . At some time in the early 1580s he was sent by his superiors

Source: Wikipedia