Abstract

MARROQUIN ARREDONDO, Jaime. Sensual Grandmother: the Historiography of Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo in the Origins of Modern Science. Alteridades [online]. 2015, vol.25, n.50, pp.81-93. ISSN 2448-850X.

The American historiography of Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo is analyzed, in particular, the titles Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias (Brief of Natural History of the Indies) (1526) and Historia general y natural de las Indias (General and Natural History of the Indies) (1535), as examples of the epistemological transition from scholasticism to humanism and the beginnings of natural science in the so-called early modernity. This historiography illustrates the new predominance of the sensorial experience, the verification of all the information through testimonies of reliable witnesses according to legal proceedings, and the creation of descriptive and classificatory models to incorporate the knowledge of American naturalism to Western historiography.

Keywords : anthropology; natural history; ethnography; transatlantic; Renaissance.

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