Oviedo y Valdes, Gonzalo Hernandez de:

$175,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

LA HISTORIA GENERAL DE LAS INDIAS. From the collection of R. David Parsons. This famous work is the most extensive book on the New World written up to the time of publication, and is one of the chief sources to this day for many of the facts relating to the early history of the Spanish conquest of the New World. The colophon leaf is signed by Oviedo, as is found in some copies. Oviedo was a witness to that history from the beginning, having been a young page at the Spanish court on the occasion of the return of Columbus in 1493. In 1505 he went out to the Indies himself as an official, and subsequently served in a number of important administrative posts. Over the next three decades he kept extensive notes on the history of the Spanish in the New World and all he observed there, especially natural history and the indigenous peoples he encountered. He also interviewed all of the Spanish explorers to whom he had access. In 1526 he published a short work on the natural history of the Indies, followed nine years later by the present work. His industry provides an extraordinary description of the period, one that his high offices and education gave him a unique ability to record.Oviedo was the first writer to gather detailed and accurate information on the natural history of the New World. Over half of the Historia General is devoted to natural history, especially focusing on plants and trees. The text is illustrated with numerous woodcuts, which are the earliest extant reliable p

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