VALERIAN0, Antonio (vah-lay-re-ah'-no), Mexican scholar, born in Azcapotzalco about 1525; died in the city of Mexico in 1605. He was a son of one of the caciques of Azcapotzalco, who had intermarried with the family of Montezuma, and died in Cortes's expedition to Hibueras. The boy showed such a desire for learning that he was one of the first Indian youths that the viceroy Antonio de Mendoza placed in the imperial college of Santa Cruz de Tlaltelolco, which he founded. Valeriano superseded his Franciscan teachers as professor of Latin and rhetoric, and also taught classes in Aztec and antiquarian science, in which Juan Bautista and Torquemada became his pupils. On account of his influence among the natives and his honesty, he was appointed, by the viceroy Martin Enriquez de Almanza, in 1570, governor of the Indians of Mexico, which place he held till his death. He wrote many Latin letters, of which there was a volume at the beginning of the 19th century in the Jesuit library of Tepozotlan, a "Caton Cristiano" in Aztec, and the famous "Nican mopehua, motecpana in quenin vancuican huei Tlamahuizoltica, omonexiti in cenquizca itechiposhtli Santa Maria, Dios Inantzin, tozihuapili Tlatocatzin in onca Tepeyac motenehug." The last is an Aztec relation of how the image of the Virgin appeared, painted in flowers, on the mountain of Tepeyac. According to Carlos de Sigiienza, the manuscript in Valeriano's own writing existed in the collection of Fernando Ixtlilxochitl. Some authorities think that Valeriano merely translated the narrative from the Spanish text of an unknown author.