Peter Martyr d'Anghiera

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For the 13th century saint, see Peter Martyr. For the 16th century theologian, see Pietro Martire Vermigli.

Frontispiece of De orbo novo

Peter Martyr d'Anghiera (in Italian, Pietro Martire D'anghiera; in Spanish Pedro Mártir De Anghiera, Latin, Petrus Martyr Anglerius or ab Angleria) (February 2, 1457-October 1526) was an Italian-born historian of Spain and of the discoveries of her representatives during the Age of Exploration. He wrote the first accounts of explorations in Central and South America in a series of letters and reports, grouped in the original Latin publications of 1511-1530 into sets of ten chapters called "decades." His Decades are thus of great value in the history of geography and discovery. His De Orbe Novo (published 1530; "On the New World") describes the first contacts of Europeans and native Americans and contains, for example, the first European reference to India rubber.

[edit] Life

Born at Arona, Italy, near Anghiera, on Lake Maggiore, he went to Rome at the age of twenty, and there made the acquaintance of important figures of the Church. He became acquainted with the Spanish ambassador there, whom he accompanied to Zaragoza in August, 1487. Martyr soon became a notable figure among the Humanists of Spain, and in 1488 gave lectures in Salamanca on the invitation of the university. The new learning was then under high patronage. Martyr would become chaplain to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella.

After 1492, Martyr's chief task was the education of young nobles at the Spanish court. In 1501 he was sent to Egypt on a diplomatic mission to dissuade the Sultan from taking vengeance on the Christians in Egypt and Palestine for the defeat of the Moors in Spain. The Reconquista had been completed in 1492. Following the success of this mission, he received the title of maestro de los caballeros ("master of knights").

In 1511 he was given the post of chronicler in the newly formed Council of the Indies, which was commissioned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to describe what was transpiring in the New World. Charles gave him in 1523 the title of Count Palatine, and in 1524 called him once more into the Council of the Indies. He was invested by Pope Clement VII, on the proposal of Charles V, with the dignity of Abbot of Jamaica. Martyr never visited the island, but as abbot he had built the first stone church.

He died at Granada.

[edit] Work

As chronicler, Martyr performed notable literary work which has preserved his name to posterity. He collected unidentified documents and accounts from the discoverers themselves, whom he interviewed personally. He profited by the letters of Christopher Columbus and was able also to make use of the reports of the Council of the Indies. He himself had a great grasp of geographical problems: it was he, for example, who first realized the significance of the Gulf Stream.

The year of his appointment (1511), he published, with other works, the first historical account of the great Spanish discoveries under the title of Opera, Legatio, Babylonica, Oceanidecas, Paemata, Epigrammata (Seville, 1511). The Decas consisted of ten reports, of which two, in the form of letters describing the voyages of Columbus, had been already sent by Martyr to Cardinal Ascanius Sforza in 1493 and 1494.

In 1501 Martyr, at the urgent request of the Cardinal of Aragon, had added to these eight chapters on the voyage of Columbus and the exploits of Martin Alonzo Pinzón, and in 1511 he added a supplement giving 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, the first of these being devoted to the exploits of Alonso de Ojeda, Diego de Nicuesa, and Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the other giving an account of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa, of the fourth voyage of Columbus, and furthermore of the expeditions of Pedrarias Dávila.

Three appeared together at Alcalá de Henares in 1516 under the title: De orbe novo decades cum Legatione Babylonica. The Enchiridion de nuper sub D. Carolo repertis insulis (Basle, 1521) came out as the fourth Decade treating of the voyages of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, Juan de Grijalva, and Hernán Cortés. The fifth Decade (1523) dealt with the conquest of Mexico and the circumnavigation of the world by Ferdinand Magellan; the sixth Decade (1524) gave an account of the discoveries of Dávila on the west coast of America; in the seventh Decade (1525) there are collected together descriptions of the customs of the natives in South Carolina, as well as Florida, Haiti, Cuba, Darién; the eighth Decade (1525) gives for the most part the story of the march of Cortés against Olit.

All the eight Decades were published together for the first time at Alcalá in 1530. Later editions of single or of all the Decades appeared at Basel (1533), Cologne (1574), Paris, (1587), and Madrid (1892). A German translation came out at Basle in 1582; an English version may be found in Arber, "The first three English books on America" (Birmingham, 1885); a French one by Gaffarel in Recueil de voyages et de documents pour servir à l'histoire de la Geographie (Paris, 1907).

In addition to his Decades in another valuable source of historical information is his Opus epistolarum, although its value is somewhat lessened by the fact that it was not arranged 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 appeared first at Alcalá in 1530; a new edition was issued by Elzevir at Amsterdam in 1670.