Physician to Philip II of Spain, Hernández travelled to Mexico by order of the king, and studied the natural history of the region from 1570-77. His Works, which filled six folio volumes of text and 10 volumes of paintings of animals and plants, were deposited in the library of the Escorial, and in Mexico City, but never published in Hernández’s lifetime. Many of them were lost. A manuscript of this summary in Latin, edited for the king by N. A. de Recchi, found its way to Mexico where it was revised, augmented, translated into Spanish-Aztec, and published by Francisco Ximénez, a friar and nurse at the Convent of San Domingo de Mexico. It was the second printed work on the natural history, plants, and botanic medicines of Mexico issued in the New World. See Nos. 1819.1 & 1821.1. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Selections from Hernández's works were published as The Mexican Treasury. The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández. Edited by Simon Varey. Translated by Rafael Chabran, Cynthia L. Chamberlin and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).

This summary of Hemández’s very extensive manuscript account of the natural history of Mexico (see No. 1820.1) was edited by N.A. de Recchi, and published at the expense of Prince Federico Cesi (1585-1630), with notes by Giovanni Terrentio (1575-1630), Johannes Faber (1574-1629) Fabio Colonna (1567-1650) and Cesi. Publication of the work was discontinued with the death of Cesi in 1628. It is usually seen in the reissue of 450 copies in 1648/49 or 1651, for which Francesco Stelluti was responsible. The remainder of Hemandez’s extant manuscripts were finally published in the Obras completas, 4 vols., Mexico City, 1959-66. See Nos. 1819-1 & 1820.1. Digital facsimile of the 1651 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.