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Don Antonio de Mendoza

The first viceroy of New Spain is one of the most famous personages of Spanish colonial history. The son of Íñigo López de Mendoza, Captain General of Granada, don Antonio received a privileged education. He was tutored by the notable chronicler Pedro Mártir de Anglería, and his family’s close connections to the Castilian crown allowed him access to the most intimate circles of the Spanish court (Aiton 1927). Among other prestigious positions he held throughout his life in Europe, Mendoza was a gentleman of the king’s chamber to Charles I and ambassador to Vienna, one of the most important European capitals of Habsburg Europe. However, it is not only his lineage or his position as the first viceroy of New Spain that set him apart from other administrators of the crown in the New World, but also his reputation as a humanist. Together, these conditions single him out in early colonial history, thus making Clavijero’s attribution of the manuscript to him, rather than to any of the other notable personages of the period, all the more beneficial for the codex that bears his name.