Oviedo on Columbus

For Bartolomé de Las Casas Columbus was the agent of God in a benign mission of evangelization but ended his career as a perpetrator of injustice against the indigenous peoples of the Antilles. A contrary image of Columbus as both the initiator of a new scientific era and agent of imperial expansion was first suggested by the author of the writings collected in this volume, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. Oviedo was a natural historian who Humboldt states was the first to attempt a systematic description of the flora and fauna f the Americas. But he was also a tireless champion of the Spanish conquest and occupation of the Americas. Oviedo´s work is certainly, as Jesús Carrillo demonstrates, one of the earliest in which the objectives of science and empire are yoked together in a way which later became a feature of botanical, zoological and anthropological writing. The work comprises an introduction, text and modern English translation of parts of the following works: De la Natural Historia de las Indias, the Cahálogo Real e Imperial de Castilla, La Historia General y Natural de las Yndias, the Diálogo on Alonso de Córdoba and the Diálogo on Pedro González de Mendoza, and from the Quinquágenas de los generosos e ilustres e non menos famosos reyes. Four maps, twelve plates and a detailed index are provided.