OVIEDO Y VALDES, GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE (1478-1557)

This article appears in Volume V20, Page 391 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ORC-PAI

OVIEDO Y VALDES, GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE (1478-1557) , Spanish historian, was born at Madrid in August 1478. Educated ht the court of Ferdinand and

Isabella

ISABELLA (1451-15o4)
ISABELLA, ISABEAU

, in his thirteenth year he became page to their son, the Infante Don John, was present at the siege of

Granada

GRANADA
GRANADA, LUIS DE (1504-1588)

, and there saw Columbus previous to his voyage to America. On the death of Prince John (4th of October 1497), Oviedo went to Italy, and there acted as secretary to Gonzalo Fernandez de

Cordoba

CORDOBA
CORDOBA, GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE (1453–15.15)

. In 1514 he was appointed supervisor of gold-smeltings at San Domingo, and on his return to Spain in 1523 was appointed historiographer of the Indies. He paid five more visits to America before his death, which took place at Valladolid in 1557.
Besides a romance of

chivalry

CHIVALRY (O. Fr. chevalerie, from
Late
- LATE
Lat. caballerius)

entitled Claribalte (1519) Oviedo wrote two extensive works of permanent value: La General y natural historia de las Indias and Las Quinquagenas de la nobleza de Espana. The former

work

WORK

was first issued at. Toledo (1526) in the form of a summary entitled La Natural hystoria de las Indias; the first

part

PART

of La Historia general de las Indias appeared at

Seville

in 1535; but the complete

work

WORK

was not published till 1851-1855, when it was edited by J. A. de los Rios for the Spanish

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

of History. Though written in a diffuse style, it embodies a

mass

of curious information collected at first hand, and. the incomplete

Seville

edition was widely read in the English and French versions published by Eden and Poleur respectively in 1555 and 1556. Las Casas describes it as " containing almost as many lies as pages," and Oviedo undoubtedly puts the most favourable interpretation on the proceedings of his countrymen; but, apart from a patriotic bias which is too obvious to be misleading, his narrative is both trustworthy and interesting. In his Quinquagenas he indulges in much lively gossip concerning eminent contemporaries; this collection of quaint, moralizing anecdotes was first published at Madrid in 188o, under the editorship of Vicente de la Fuente.

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