This research note aims to disclose a copy of Oviedo’s
Esta nota de investigación tiene como objetivo revelar una copia de Oviedo
Almost everything has been written about the life, work and legacy of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1478–1557). This is more than enough to not duplicate here his biography and works
In mid-2012, during partial work of raising old and rare scientific books in Municipal Library of Porto heritage collections, I came upon a copy
We do not know how this book signed by Oviedo ended into the hands of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), proprietary of one of the largest libraries in Europe of his time (Does the book travelled directly to Great Britain? Does it crossed France or other European countries?), but we know that Sloane owned two copies of Oviedo´s
After Sloane’s dead his collection of books (including those above mentioned) and manuscripts formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum Library, later British Library. In this context, the printed titles were stamped with the distinctive British Museum ownership mark, the octagonal ‘Museum Britannicum’ black stamp. The British Museum held several sales of duplicate items. Our
The auction, promoted by Leigh and Sotheby, took place in March 1788 and the book was bought by “Pinto”, i.e., Luís Pinto de Sousa Coutinho (1735-1804), Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from Portugal in London, later 1st Viscount of Balsemão
During the Portuguese Civil War, also known as Liberal Wars or War of the Two Brothers (1828-1834), the remarkable library of the Viscounts of Balsemão
After circulating among aristocratic owners and travelling through private and public libraries, at least across three European countries – Spain, United Kingdom and Portugal – this copy of Oviedo’s
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Paula Andrade Martins for the valuable help given during the preparation of this paper in draft form, especially in the illustrations and text review. I would also like to thank Professor Henrique Leitão (CIUHCT, University of Lisbon) for the encouragement to publish my research note on this subject. I am also grateful to the anonymous referees of this text for their helpful suggestions.
The bibliography on Oviedo is, fortunately, very extensive. A selection of two dozen titles may be cited as an example – see Bibliography section below.
View BPMP catalog record - URI:
Further to this now disclosed specimen, I have knowledge of a few copies of
In this case the match is almost perfect; however Oviedo’s handwritten signature is not always thoroughly uniform, as can be seen at Oviedo’s
On these Oviedo’s books which belonged to Sloane’s library see
Costa, Júlio (2012), “No rasto português da biblioteca científico-médica de Hans Sloane: problemas e evidências”,
About the Library of Viscounts of Balsemão and some of its scientific books, a few of them from Hispanic authors and about Natural history, see: Costa, Júlio (2012), “Alguns livros científicos (sécs. XVI e XVII) no ‘Inventário’ da Livraria dos Viscondes de Balsemão”, Ágora: Estudos Clássicos em Debate, 14.1, pp. 131-158. Also available online at:
Fig. 1: Illustrated title-page and signature detail of Oviedo’s
Fig. 2: Aspect (folio 107 and detail in the autograph manuscript) of Oviedo’s
Fig. 3: Title-page and verso (and details) of Oviedo’s
Fig. 4
- BRITISH MUSEUM –
- PORTO. Biblioteca Pública Municipal –
Fig. 5:
- Detail of Oviedo’s statue (by Joaquín Vaquero Turcios) in the Ozama Fortress, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; image credit: Author’s photo.
- Sir Hans Sloane. Mezzotin by J. Faber, Junior, 1729, after Sir G. Kneller, 1716; image credit: Wellcome Library, London, United Kingdom.
- British Museum/Montagu House, drawing by Sutton Nichols, published in 1754; image credit: public domain (From Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license).
- 1st Viscount of Balsemão, D. A. de Sequeira del.; M. M. de Aguilar engrav., 1801; image credit: National Library of Portugal.
- 2nd Viscount of Balsemão, portrait (detail), oil on canvas (probably painted in the first quarter of the nineteenth century). Owned by Vasco Pinto de Sousa Coutinho. Originally published by Luís Cabral, in
- Early Franciscan Convent (ca 1833), Oporto Royal Public Library since 1842. Original drawing by J. C. V. Vilanova, BPMP Ms. 1479 (drawing nº 102); image credit: Municipal Library of Porto, Portugal.