Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo

Timeline

1. 1478–1523Madrid · MadridBorn near Madrid, Oviedo served in the military in his youth and fought in Italy. He first sailed to the Indies in 1514, holding administrative posts in Hispaniola and elsewhere, and began accumulating notes on American nature and affairs.
2. 1523–1535Toledo · Castilla-La ManchaIn the 1520s Oviedo compiled his American observations in Spain, publishing the first volume of the Natural History of the Indies in 1526, which detailed New World flora, fauna, local conditions, and colonial events, providing an important textual source for European knowledge of the Americas between 1521 and 1530.
3. 1535–1557Santo Domingo · HispaniolaIn 1535 Charles V appointed Oviedo as chronicler of the Indies. He again traveled to Santo Domingo and other places to gather material, continually expanding the General History of the Indies, recording conquest, nature, and colonial administration until his death at Peñafiel in 1557.