Francisco Burgoa was a historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. He entered the Dominican Order

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 on 2 August 1629, and soon became a master in theology. The voluminous books written by him on the past of his native Mexican state, Oaxaca, are very rare and valuable, though not absolutely reliable on several topics. He was curate

Curate

A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 of several Indian parishes and his knowledge of the native languages, the Zapotec

Zapotec language

The Zapotec language are a group of closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highlands of Mexico. Present-day native speakers are estimated to number over half a million, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca....

 and Mixtec, is stated to have been very thorough. In 1649 he became Provincial

Provincial superior

A Provincial Superior is a major superior of a religious order acting under the order's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that order in a territorial division of the order called a province--similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical...

 of the Province of San Hipólito and took part in the chapter general of his order in Rome in 1656. Returning to Mexico with the title of vicar-general, a member of the Spanish Inquisition

Spanish Inquisition

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...

, and Commissary and Inspector of Libraries of New Spain

New Spain

New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

 (Mexico), he again became Provincial of Oaxaca in 1662. He was interested in several ecclesiastical foundations and improvements, and was highly respected at the time of his death. The two historical and geographical works through which he is best known are the Palestra histórica, ó Historia de la Provincia de San Hipólito de Oaxaca, de la Orden de Predicadores (Mexico, 1670), and the Descripción geográfica de la América setentrional etc. (Mexico, 1674). He published a number of sermons and also wrote Itinerario de Oaxaca á Roma y de Roma a Oaxaca.

Sources

• Pinelo, Epitome de la biblioteca oriental y occidental (Madrid, 1737)
• Nicolás Antonio
  Nicolás Antonio
  Nicolás Antonio was a Spanish bibliographer born in Seville. After taking his degree in Salamanca , he returned to his native city, wrote his treatise De Exilio , and began his monumental register of Spanish writers...
  
  , Bibliotheca hispana nova (Madrid, 1733–38)
• Eguiara, Biblioteca mexicana (Mexico, 1755)
• Beristain, Biblioteca hispano-americana etc. (Amecameca, 1883)
• Brasseur de Bourbourg, Bibl. mexico-guatemalienne (Paris, 1871).