Peter Martyr d'Anghiera

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Peter Martyr d'Anghiera (

India rubber
. It was first translated into English in 1555, and in a fuller version in 1912.

Life

Martyr was born on 2 February 1457 at

Ferdinand and Isabella
.

Illustrated title page of De orbe novo

After 1492, Martyr's chief task was the education of young nobles at the Spanish court. In 1501 he was

Fall of Granada. This he achieved by strongly asserting that there were no forced conversions and that Granada Muslims had asked for baptism of their own volition - plus, more importantly, promising Spanish help to Egypt against the threat of conquest by the Ottomans [1]
. He described his voyage through Egypt in the Legatio Babylonica, which was published in the 1511 edition of his Decades. Following the success of this mission, he received the title of maestro de los caballeros (master of knights).

In 1520 Martyr was given the post of chronicler (cronista) in the newly formed

Count Palatine, and in 1524 called him once more into the Council of the Indies. Martyr was invested by Pope Clement VII, as proposed by Charles V, as Abbot of Jamaica. Although Martyr never visited the island, as abbot he directed the construction of the first stone church
there.

He died in Granada in 1526.

Works

The 1511 map gives the earliest record of the Bermudas and is the first printed map specifically devoted to the Americas.

Peter Martyr was a prolific writer. He is estimated to have composed some eight hundred letters addressed to various illustrious persons relating events in Spain and the Spanish court, written in a journalistic style, often quite gossipy. Moving in court circles, Peter Martyr was personally acquainted with most of the leading figures of the day, and it is from his letters that historians have drawn much of the details about their physical appearance, personality, quirks and anecdotes.

It was as a chronicler that Martyr performed his most notable literary work. He collected documents and accounts from the discoverers as well as personally interviewing them. He learned from the letters of Christopher Columbus and made use of the reports of the Council of the Indies. He had a great grasp of geographical issues; he was the first European to realize the significance of the Gulf Stream.

In 1511, his publications included the first historical account of the Spanish discoveries: Opera, Legatio Babylonica, Oceanidecas, Paemata, Epigrammata (Seville, 1511). The Decas consisted of ten reports, two of which Martyr had previously sent as letters describing the voyages of Columbus, to Cardinal

Martin Alonzo Pinzón
. In 1511 he added a supplement giving an account of events from 1501 to 1511.

Jointly with this Decade, he published a narrative of his experiences in Egypt with a description of the inhabitants, their country, and history. By 1516 he had finished two other Decades:

In 1530 the eight Decades were published together for the first time at Alcalá. Later editions of single or of all the Decades appeared at

Gaffarel
in Recueil de voyages et de documents pour servir à l'histoire de la Geographie (Paris, 1907).

Martyr also wrote the historical account, Opus epistolarum, although it was not edited or published until after his death. This collection consists of 812 letters to or from ecclesiastical dignitaries, generals, and statesmen of Spain and Italy, dealing with contemporary events, and especially with the history of Spain between 1487 and 1525. It was published first at Alcalá in 1530; a new edition was issued by the House of Elzevir at Amsterdam in 1670.

Editions

  • Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, De orbe novo, translated from the Latin with notes and introduction by Francis Augustus MacNutt, New York: Putnam, 1912. 2 vols.
  • Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, Decadas del nuevo mundo, 1944
  • Petrus Martyr de Anghieria, Opera: Legatio Babylonica, De Orbe novo decades octo, Opus Epistolarum, Graz: Akademische Druck- U. Verlagsanstalt, 1966

References

Further reading

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainHerbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Peter Martyr d'Anghiera". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  • Hartig, Otto (1910). "Peter Martyr d'Anghiera". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. IX (New Advent online reproduction ed.). New York: Robert Appleton and Company. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
  • Maynard, Theodore (1931). "Peter Martyr D'Anghiera: Humanist and Historian". The Catholic Historical Review. 16 (4): 435–448.
    JSTOR 25012806
    .
  • McNutt, Francis Augustus (1912). "Introduction". De orbe novo: The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr d'Anghera. Vol. I. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 1–48.
  • Nugent, Elizabeth M. (1969) "Peter Martyr D’Anghiera." in The Thought & Culture of the English Renaissance. Springer, Netherlands. pp. 511–518.
  • Wagner, Henry R. (1946). "Peter Martyr and his Works" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. 56 (2): 239–288.
  • Wynter, Sylvia (1992). "Anghiera, Pietro Martire D'". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. Simon and Schuster.

External links