Historia verdadera de la conqvista de la Nueva-España.
Alternative Title:
Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España.
Description:
“• “Historia verdadera de la conquista de la nueva España” is a first-person narrative written in 1576 by military adventurer, conquistador, and colonist settler Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who served in the three Mexican expeditions; those of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (1517) to the Yucatán peninsula; the expedition of Juan de Grijalva (1518), and the expedition of Hernán Cortés (1519) in the Valley of Mexico; the history relates his participation in the fall of Emperor Moctezuma II, and the subsequent defeat of the Aztec Empire. This second edition was published the same year as the first, with the addition of the final chapter on the astrological predictions made by the Indians. In 1552, [Francisco Lopez de] Gómara, secretary and chaplain to Cortés, published at Saragossa his "Crónica de la Conquista de Nueva España", in which Díaz thought he gave undue credit to Cortés. Díaz, therefore, in 1568 undertook to write his "Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva España", and though despairing of his ability to equal Gómara's literary polish, he determined to write a faithful narrative of the stirring events in which he had taken part, in order to correct the gross inaccuracies of Gómara, who had never even been in America, and to vindicate the valour of himself and others who had been completely overshadowed by the exaggerated reputation of Cortés. The work lay neglected and unpublished until, in 1632, Father Alonso Remón of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, found it in a private library and had it published at Madrid. | There is considerable evidence that this is not, in fact, one of the 1632 printings or a mixture of 1632 printings but rather a late 17th or early 18th century counterfeit. This includes an anachronistic capital U on the title page, a gathering correction that does not include the year correction that appeared in that corrected gathering, an adornment that appears on page 232, and more. At a minimum, the title page does not date to 1632. | This volume was originally part of Genaro García’s collection. It was purchased in a Mexico City bookstore by University of Texas Regent Henry J. Lutcher Stark on or around December 1, 1920 and subsequently donated to the University of Texas Library. The following year, The University of Texas purchased the remainder of García’s library and archives, forming the foundation of the modern-day Benson Latin American Collection.
Creator/Contributor:
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal, 1496-1584 (author), Remón, Alonso, 1561-1632 (editor), and García, Genaro, 1867-1920 (collector)
Date Created/Date Issued:
1632
Owning Repository:
Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin