Muñoz Camargo was an Indian chronicler whose principal work is the History of Tlaxcala, which, though local in name, is very general in its information.
Oviedo was the first chronicler of the New World. He wrote the General and Natural History of the Indians, in fifty books, of which the first nineteen were published in 1535, and were again printed in 1547, and afterward appeared translated into other languages.
Ixtlixochitl was the original chronicler of the Texcuxanas, and few writers enjoy his fame and reputation. He became an author so as to study the interpretation of the ancient paintings. In his closing years he officiated as court interpreter to the Indians; he died about the year 1648.
Friar Agustin de Vetancourt, of the Franciscan Order, contributed many valuable works and treatises on Mexico and the affairs of his day and time.
Carlos de Siguenza was one of the most erudite students of his period, and a native Mexican. He made an earnest study of the traditions of the early Mexicans, especially those that bore traces of Biblical origin or intimations of Christianity. He died a learned man, and his works are a high literary authority.
The valuable researches and records of these historians could never have been made but for the work of their predecessors, who rendered inestimable service to history by recording facts gleaned from the "wise men" who had formed the councils of the deposed Indian monarchs, and from the chiefs able to interpret the "picture writings" which then formed the national records and literature.
After a period of prostration the revival of letters began in Mexico toward the close of the seventeenth century. The impetus was inaugurated by Clavigero, Veytia, and Guma, noted historians, and Boturini, a great collector of hieroglyphics and manuscripts.
The next period was distinguished by the advent of such luminaries as Quintana Roo, Ortega, Galvan, and Jose Joaquin Fernandez, who rose upon the literary horizon amid the storms of civil dissensions.
