FrayGerónimo de Mendieta (1525–1604), alternativelyJerónimo de Mendieta, was aFranciscan missionary and historian, who spent most of his life in theSpanish Empire's new possessions inMexico andCentral America.

His main work is theHistoria eclesiástica indiana, written in the late sixteenth century, but not published until 1870 byJoaquín García Icazbalceta, which recounts the history of Franciscan evangelization in the colony ofNew Spain inthe Americas and abuses of the indigenous by Spanish civil society.

Gerónimo de Mendieta was born inVitoria,Álava, in theBasque country of (Spain), in 1525. When he was twenty years old he entered theFranciscan order inBilbao. In 1554 he traveled toNew Spain to live inTochimilco where he was taught the localNahuatl language. He was later moved toTlaxcala where he became a friend of fellow FranciscanToribio de Benavente "Motolinia".^[1] "Mendieta learned Nahuatl from Motolinia," and Motolina's optimism about indigenous conversion influenced Mendieta.^[2]

He returned to theIberian Peninsula in 1570, bringing with him the first copies of the works ofBernardino de Sahagún to the Spanish authorities.^[3] He returned toMexico again in 1573, this time never to return to Europe. He returned under order to compose a history of the work of evangelizing the Americas. From his return to Mexico until 1597 he lived in the monastery ofTlatelolco, working on the history that would make him famous,^[4] theHistoria eclesiástica indiana, a chronicle of the early evangelization history of the New World. The publication of the work was prohibited, as it was deemed to contain "unsound,"millenarian,Joachimite ideas,^[5] and it was only published for the first time in 1870, when it was brought to light byJoaquín García Icazbalceta.

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• Spanish Franciscans
• Novohispanic Mesoamericanists
• 16th-century Mesoamericanists
• 16th-century Mexican historians
• Historians of Mesoamerica
• Historians of Franciscan history
• 1525 births
• 1604 deaths
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