Empire and Knowledge

Reporting from the New World

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7540286
AutoresAntonio Barrera (Colgate University, autor correspondente)
Ano2006
Volume15
Fascículo1
Páginas39-54
Data de publicação2006-04-27
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoColonial Latin American Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1060-9164 • E-ISSN: 1466-1802
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10609160600607424
OpenAlexW2077067925
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas22

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes *This essay is an expanded version of a conference paper given at the HSS in 2002. Thanks are due to Susan Deans-Smith, Daniela Bleichmar, Paula De Vos, and the audience for their comments. 1I expand these issues in my forthcoming book Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution (2006). 2 López Piñero has been the leading figure in the study of the history of science in Spain; in his work, he discusses the development of scientific fields and institutions in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 3 Colón and his team's 'findings were recorded in eight volumes of description (which have survived) and three volumes of pictures or sketches (now, sadly, lost).' Charles stopped the survey, for reasons unknown (Parker , 127–28). 4 The project of mapping the New World would eventually include the work of indigenous people; see Mundy (). 5 The book was published in Toledo in 1526 under the title Oviedo dela natural hystoria de las Indias. Nowadays, it is more commonly known by the title that appears inside: Sumario de la natural y general istoria de las Indias, que escrivio Gõçalo Fernãdez de Ouiedo alias de Valdes natural de la villa de Madrid, vezino y regidor de la cibdad d' Santa Maria del antigua del Darien: en tierra firme: dando relacion a la S.C.C.M. del Emperador don Carlos nuestro señor de algunas cosas que el dicho autor vido y ay en las Indias. On the title, see Picatoste y Rodriguez (, 98). 6 Villasante's name appears in a document signed in Santo Domingo in February 1515. In this document, Villasante was proposed as a witness (together with other residents) to answer questions about Rodrigo de Albuquerque's activities on the island in 1514 (Arranz Márquez, ). 7 Cook suggests that the Taino population around 1492 might have been half a million; by 1518–19 the numbers had fallen to around 18,000 and by 1542 the native population was less than 2,000. Villasante's information came from a group that was disappearing (Cook , 23–24). 8 At the end of the decree it says 'to send one like this to all of the Indies.' The royal decree calls him the 'capitan P[edro] Fernández de Oviedo' but it is the same Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo of the Consulta of 27 May 1532 (AGI, Indiferente 737, N. 24). The wording of the Consulta and the royal decree is the same. 9 I am following Raquel Alvarez Peláez (, 176–77) for the description of Santa Cruz's document. 10 Before joining the Council of the Indies, Ovando had designed the reform of the University of Alcalá de Henares. After working at, and reforming, the Council of the Indies he moved to the Council of Finance (Poole , 585–96; Lovett , 5). 11 Hernández's work influenced that of Johannes de Laet, Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Georg Marcgraf, Abraham Munting, Robert Lovell, Henry Sloane, Erasmus Darwin, John Ray, and others (Varey , 161f.; López Piñero and Pardo Tomás , 122

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