Dominic of Santa Maria
+ 1559

A brief biography.

Dominic of Santa Maria was born in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. He sailed to the New World and joined  the Dominican Order in Mexico, founded there in 1535. After studies he received the priesthood and was provincial of the Mexican Province of the Dominicans from 1547 till 1550 and from 1556 till his death in 1559.

After studies of the language, he described the traditions of the Aztecs in his Codex, now known as Codex Yanhuitlán (1541-1550), preserved in theBodleyan Library, - with the name Codex Mendocine -, in Oxford. His work was intended for the first Spanish viceroy of Mexico, Antony of Mendoza  (1535-1550).

Philately

Aztec painter Tacuilo and a Dominican, Dominic
of Santa Maria, from the Yanhuitlan Codex,1541-1550,
now preserved as Mendocine Codex in the Bodleyan
Library in Oxford.

Mexico 1988, Mi 2101, Sc 1566.

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