Academic literature on the topic 'Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo, 1478-1557'

Este artículo da cuenta de las formas en que una historia natural oficial-imperial aborda la descripción de la naturaleza en contextos de conquista y colonización temprana. Para esto, considero las reescrituras, ampliaciones y transformaciones en los escritos de historia natural de Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1478-1557); en particular, del Libro de los depósitos o Libro VI sobre rarezas incomprensibles de las Indias Occidentales. Metodológicamente y desde visiones des-centradas y desjerarquizadas, este trabajo integra herramientas de la paleografía, que examinan el proceso de redacción. Asimismo, se sirve de los estudios literarios, discursivos y coloniales, que formulan hipótesis de lectura sobre los textos. Propongo que el Libro VI exterioriza con claridad las tecnologías del archivo colonial que clasifican, asimilan, homogeneizan o descartan el conocimiento. Aunque también desestabilizan y transforman estructuralmente el archivo junto a tecnologías materiales de la escritura consideradas de segundo orden comola marginalia, los comentarios, las tachaduras, las inserciones y las formas lingüísticas de lo inefable.

Etude des representations du monde indigene dans la historia general y natural de las indias de gonzalo fernandez de oviedo. (699 pages : cinq parties qui integrent la biographie de l'auteur, l'anatomie de la hgn, les voies du discours ethnographique, l'analyse des themes ethnographiques, et le statut de l'indien dans le rapport de conquete et le projet colonial). Les principes de cette etude qui s'attache surtout aux regions geographiques parcourues par l'auteur (region panameenne et darien, nicaragua et grandes antilles) sont de replacer les representations des mondes indigenes dans les trajectoires discursives et descriptives, les eclairer par les circonstances biographiques de l'auteur, delimiter les champs geographiques et culturels sur lesquels portent les analyses et enfin prendre en compte l'arriere plan culturel et les preoccupations politiques du chroniqueur. Il s'agit d'eviter l'approche reductrice habituelle qui consiste a accuser oviedo d'anti-indigenisme, de cerner la capacite heuristique de la description ethnographique dans la hgn, de relever les differents dispositifs discursifs qui la disent et enfin d'observer les tensions qui travaillent le texte de facon irreguliere. On observe une tendance a la secularisation par la valorisation des realites sociales et techniques amerindiennes (inventaire des procedures de fabrication). L'accent est donc mis sur les differentes voies de l'ethnographie et sur la vision fragmentee du monde indigene qui opere comme une sorte de mise en grille du nouveau monde selon le schema plinien, ou encore comme une restauration de veritables scenes de vie (exemple les areitos, la fabrication du cacao ou l'entrevue avec le cacique agateite dans la place de tecoatega). Enfin l'etude s'attache precisement a la production iconographique selon les manuscrits et les differentes editions de la hgn
Study of the representations of the native world in the historia general y natural de las indias by gonzalo fernandez de oviedo (699 pages : five parts corresponding to the author's biography, the anatomy of the hgn, the processes of the ethnographic speech, an analysis of the ethnographic topics and the status of the amerindian in the conquest development, as well as in the colonial scheme). This study pays particular attention to the geographic areas travelled through by the author (the panamanian, and darien areas, nicaragua, the great antilles). The principles of this study consist in setting the representations of the native world into oviedo's discursive and descriptive approaches, enlighting them through the author's actual experiences, marking the limits of the geographic and cultural fields covered by the analysies and at last taking into account the chronicler's cultural background and political preoccupations. The reducing approach which consists in accusing oviedo of being prejudiced against native people must be avoided. The point is to delimit the heuristic capacity of the ethnographic description in the hgn, to reveal the different discursive devices which express it and to observe the strains which, now and then, stir ans shape the text. We may note a tendency to secularisation through the emphasizing of the social realities and the amerindian technics (inventory of the manufactoring processes). The emphasis is set upon the various ethnographic approaches and the split vision of the native world which operates as a sort of plinian criss-crossing of the new world or as a restoration of genuine daily scenes (for instance the areitos, the making of the cocoa, or the meeting with the cacique agateite on the main palce of tecoatega). To come to an end, this study sticks closely to the iconographic production from the manuscript and the different issues from the hgn

This dissertation investigates how a network of Venetian and Spanish scholars placed ancient texts and new geographic information about the Americas in dialogue to create new histories of the modern world, from the 1510s to the 1550s. I focus in particular on the print production and manuscript exchanges of Venetian state officials Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Pietro Bembo, and Andrea Navagero, and Spanish state officials Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. Under the custodianship of Navagero, Bembo, and Ramusio, the Library of St. Mark, donated to the Republic of Venice by the Greek cardinal Bessarion in 1468, functioned as a site of knowledge production. The gatekeeping and information management practices that these men carried out as caretakers of this politically charged library of Greek and Latin books informed their manuscript exchanges and print production. Geographic news from the Americas in the form of letters, accounts, maps, and printed works posed a particular challenge to classical understandings of the globe, and the Spanish and Venetian intellectuals examined here together faced the challenge of apprehending the new and determining the role and relevance of ancient texts such as those of Ptolemy, Plato, Pliny, and Strabo in the contemporary world. Through their histories, summaries, anthologies, and commentaries, they made news into history, curating the presentation of the Americas for their reading publics. Their published works fixed in print the fluid correspondence networks and manuscript exchanges that enabled their creation, making the private public with a great deal of mediation, selection, and suppression or selective acknowledgment of sources and dialogues. By reading the printed works together with the manuscript backstory, I reveal how these scholars pushed at the boundaries of what was expected of them as Spanish or Venetian state agents. Their curated presentation of information about the Americas obscured the porosity of intellectual exchange among Spanish and Venetian intellectuals at the time, and the extent to which the production of Americana in Venice is not just a Venetian story, but also a Spanish one.