Title

Translatio Imperii: Virgil and Peter Martyr's Columbus

Authors

Elise Bartosik-Vélez, Dickinson CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2009

Department

Spanish

Language

English

Publication Title

Comparative Literature Studies

Abstract

The Milanese humanist Peter Martyr d'Anghiera (1457-1526) was the first historiographer to write about Christopher Columbus and to recognize the significance of the first Columbian voyage by coining the term "New World." His eight-volume account of Spain's "discoveries" in the Americas, the Decades de Orbe Novo, which he began writing in 1493, was a primary source of information for European princes and elites about the Western hemisphere. While Martyr was instrumental in framing one of the principal discourses about Columbus and the Spanish conquest of the New World, his role in this regard has been overlooked by most scholars.¹

Comments

Copyright © 2009 The Pennsylvania State University Press. All rights reserved
This article is used by permission of The Pennsylvania State University Press.

For more information on the published version, visit Project Muse's Website.

DOI

10.1353/cls.0.0107

Recommended Citation

Bartosik-Vélez, Elise. "Translatio Imperii: Virgil and Peter Martyr's Columbus." Comparative Literature Studies 46, no.4 (2009): 559-88.