CULTURAL READINGS: Colonization & Print in the Americas

Jay I. Kislak Foundation

Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, De nuper sub D. Carlo repertis insulis... Basle: A. Petri, 1521.

Like Columbus, Peter Martyr was a transplanted Italian who served the Spanish court. Charles V appointed him to write a history of the discovery and conquest of the New World, and between 1511 and 1530 he brought out his story in a series of publications which trumpeted the achievements of the Spanish Empire. He modeled his history on Livy's history of ancient Rome, organizing it into "decades" and presenting Columbus as a modern Aeneas.

Martyr's Opus epistolarum...

Colonial Fictions, Colonial Histories

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