Tello, Antonio
TELLO, ANTONIO
Franciscan chronicler; b. Spain, date unknown; d. Guadalajara, Jalisco, June 1653. From the province of Santiago de Galicia he went to that of Nueva Galicia, Jalisco, Mexico. In 1596 Tello and other Franciscans accompanied Gen. Sebastián Vizcaíno in his unsuccessful expedition to California. He returned to Jalisco and held the office of guardian at Zacoalco (1605), Amatlán (1620), Tecolotlán, and Cocula (1648). His valuable six-volume work, Crónica miscelánea de la sancta provincia de Xalisco, remained unedited for more than two centuries, but his manuscript was known and cited by historians of the 18th century. The original was lost and became an object of search for bibliophiles of the 19th century. Volume 1 was never found. A complete edition of all the extant volumes was in preparation in 1964, and parts had previously been published (v.2 Guadalajara 1891; v.3 Guadalajara 1942; v.4 with 27 chapters of v.5 Mexico City 1871). The original volumes 2 and 3 are in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R.I.; volumes 4, 5, and 6 (incomplete) are in the Public Library of Guadalajara, Jalisco. Tello anticipated bibliographers of the New World in introducing an alphabetical catalogue of Franciscan authors.
Bibliography: j. garcÍa, icazbalceta, Obras, 10 v. (Mexico City 1896–99), v.9, Biografías.
[e. gÓmez-tagle]