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Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo's Historia General y Natural—First American Encyclopedia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Daymond Turner
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Extract

On May 7, 1532, the Consejo de Indias wrote to the King-Emperor Charles, the First of Spain, and Fifth of the Holy Roman Empire:

Gonzalo Hernández de Oviedo, resident of Hispaniola, has had the care and inclination to write of affairs of the Indies; he offers to carry forward his work if he is given some salary towards the expense of collecting material and maintaining a clerk. It appears appropriate that it be included in the Chronicle of Spain. He displays more ability than anyone over there. It would be well to order him to examine all those lands where he has not been and to send the reports to this Council in order that here they may be edited and incorporated in the Chronicle and he should be given an annual subsidy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , April 1964 , pp. 267 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1964

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References

1 Cited by Juan Pérez de Tudela Bueso in his “Vida y escritos de Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo” which constitutes an introduction to edition of Historia General y natural de las Indias published at Madrid, 1959. (Biblioteca de autores españoles: CXVII-CXXI) I, 1-CLXIX, p. cxviii.

2 Ibid., p. xcix.

3 Cf. J. Natalicio González: “Prólogo” to edition Historia general… Asunción del Paraguay, 1944. I, p. 10.

4 The first nineteen books were printed at Seville by Juan Cromberger in 1535. A second edition of these plus a part of the fiftieth were printed by Juan de Junta at Salamanca, 1547. There was one printing of the twentieth book (Valladolid, Francisco Fernández de Córdoba, 1557.) The first edition of all fifty books was that of José Amador de los Ríos, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 1851-1855. As José de la Peña y Cámara has pointed out (in his “Contribuciones documentales y críticas para una biografía de Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo,” Revista de Indias, XVII, 69-70, pp. 273-332) Ríos’ biographical data have been superseded by recent scholarship. It is also to be regretted that modern editors (González and Pérez de Tudela) have elected to follow the Ríos text which, ignoring differences between the 1535 and 1547 editions and extensive manuscript materials, is hardly a critical one.

5 Biographical material based, saved otherwise noted, on Pérez de Tudela, op. cit. (Note 1 above). While rejecting the hypothesis of Peña relative to Oviedo's converso antecedents Pérez presents a remarkable objective synthesis of published materials concerning Oviedo's life and his own researches in the Spanish archives.

6 Historia General — I, p. 32-33. All citations from the text hereafter are from Asunción del Paraguay edition of 1944 unless otherwise noted.

7 Cf. Ferrando, Roberto. “Fernández de Oviedo y el conocimiento del mar del Sur,” Revista de Indias. XVII, 1957, pp. 469–482.Google Scholar

8 Op. cit.

9 Historia general, Bk. XIV, Vol. Ill, p. 191-192.

10 Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés. Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias (in: E. de Vedia: Historiadores primitivos de Indias. Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1852 I (Biblioteca de autores españoles, XXII) p. 471.

11 Tomo V (BAE CXXI), pp. 421-479.

12 E. g. Historia general … (Asunción ed.) Bk. VII, Ch. 1-4, Vol. II, pp. 159-176.

13 Ibid., Bk. XI, Ch. 1, Vol. III, pp. 70-81.

14 Ibid., Bk. VIII, Ch. 1, Vol. II, pp. 199-210.

15 Ibid., Bk. XI, Ch. 1, Vol. III, pp. 34-37.

16 Ibid., Bk. XI, Ch. 2, Vol. III, pp. 37-38.

17 Ibid., Bk. IV, Ch. 8, Vol. I, pp. 218-226.

18 Ibid., Bk. VII, Ch. 5, Vol. II, p. 176.

19 Ibid., Bks. VIII and IX, Vol. II, pp. 197-310, Bk. X, Vol. Ill, pp. 1-31.

20 Ibid., Bk. XII, Ch. 5, Vol. III, p. 64.

21 Ibid., Bk. XIII, Ch. 9, Vol. Ill, pp. 138-139.

22 Ibid., Bk. XII, Ch. 7, Vol. III, pp. 70-71. Oviedo classifies the alligator with lizards, hence as a land animal.

23 Ibid., Bk. XV, Vol. III, pp. 162-182.

24 Ibid., Bk. III, Ch. II, Vol. I, pp. 168-169.

25 Ibid., Bk. XXXII, Ch. 5, Vol. VIII, p. 194.

26 In Asunción edition these plates are distributed throughout the fourteen volumes of the text. However, all are assembled (in larger format) as an appendix at the end of the Volume V, Madrid, 1959, edition.

27 Cf. Prescott, William Hickling. The Conquest of Mexico, New York, The Modern Library, n. d., pp. 409–412.Google Scholar

28 Morison, Samuel Eliot. Admiral of the Ocean Sea… Boston; Little, Brown and Company, 1942, pp. 52–53.Google Scholar

29 Historia general… Bk. II, Ch. 1, Vol. I, pp. 32-33.

30 González, , op, cit., p. 17–18.Google Scholar