Home History Fernández de Oviedo's Chronicle of America
book: Fernández de Oviedo's Chronicle of America
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Fernández de Oviedo's Chronicle of America

A New History for a New World
  • Kathleen Ann Myers
  • Translated by: Nina M. Scott
Languages: English, English
Published/Copyright: 2007
View more publications by University of Texas Press

About this book

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1478-1557) wrote the first comprehensive history of Spanish America, the Historia general y natural de las Indias, a sprawling, constantly revised work in which Oviedo attempted nothing less than a complete account of the Spanish discovery, conquest, and colonization of the Americas from 1492 to 1547, along with descriptions of the land's flora, fauna, and indigenous peoples. His Historia, which grew to an astounding fifty volumes, includes numerous interviews with the Spanish and indigenous leaders who were literally making history, the first extensive field drawings of America rendered by a European, reports of exotic creatures, ethnographic descriptions of indigenous groups, and detailed reports about the conquest and colonization process.

Fernández de Oviedo's Chronicle of America explores how, in writing his Historia, Oviedo created a new historiographical model that reflected the vastness of the Americas and Spain's enterprise there. Kathleen Myers uses a series of case studies—focusing on Oviedo's self-portraits, drawings of American phenomena, approaches to myth, process of revision, and depictions of Native Americans—to analyze Oviedo's narrative and rhetorical strategies and show how they relate to the politics, history, and discursive practices of his time. Accompanying the case studies are all of Oviedo's extant field drawings and a wide selection of his text in English translation.

The first study to examine the entire Historia and its evolving rhetorical and historical context, this book confirms Oviedo's assertion that "the New World required a different kind of history" as it helps modern readers understand how the discovery of the Americas became a catalyst for European historiographical change.

Author / Editor information

Kathleen Ann Myers is Professor of Literatures in Spanish at Indiana University in Bloomington.


Publicly Available Download PDF
i

Publicly Available Download PDF
vii

Publicly Available Download PDF
ix

Publicly Available Download PDF
xv

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
1

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
12

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
26

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
41

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
63

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
82

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
98

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
113

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
136

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
139

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
142

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
143

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
180

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
188

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
271

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
301

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
315

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 1, 2010
eBook ISBN:
9780292795020
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
344
Downloaded on 25.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7560/717039/html
Scroll to top button