Natural Designs - (Early Modern Americas) by Elizabeth Gansen (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book explores the works of the inaugural historian of American nature, Gonzalo Fernâandez de Oviedo (1478-1557). Oviedo's pioneering role in early modern science is often overlooked. By foregrounding his role as writer, illustrator, and editor of New World nature, this book draws renewed attention to this Spanish historian, the first to give shape to this reality"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Natural Designs chronicles the life and work of the earliest and most influential Spanish historian of the New World, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1478-1557). Through a combination of biography and visual and textual analysis, Elizabeth Gansen explores how Oviedo, in his writings, brought the European Renaissance to bear on his understanding of New World nature.

Oviedo learned much from the humanists with whom he came into contact in the courtly circles of Spain and Italy, including Giovanni Battista Ramusio and Pietro Bembo, and witnessed Christopher Columbus regaling Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand with news from his inaugural voyage to the Indies. Fascinated by the Caribbean flora and fauna Oviedo encountered on his arrival to the Caribbean in 1514, he made them the protagonists of his writings on the Indies. From his consumption of the prickly pear cactus, which led him to believe his death was imminent, to the behavior of the iguana, which defied his efforts to determine if the lizard was fish or flesh, his works reveal the challenges at the heart of Spain's encounter with the biological wonders of the Americas.

Natural Designs foregrounds Oviedo's role as a writer, illustrator, and editor of New World nature. As much as Oviedo is credited as a pioneer in the literary genre of American natural history, his contributions to early modern conceptions of the flora and fauna of the Indies are still not widely understood and appreciated. Gansen situates us in the early sixteenth century to reappraise the works of the Spanish historian who first shaped these realities.

Review Quotes

"In addition to advancing scholarly understandings of Oviedo's thought and praxis as a natural historian, Natural Designs usefully contributes to the expansion of Renaissance studies beyond narrow European frames."-- "Hispanic American Historical Review"

"Gansen's contribution to the scholarly conversation about Oviedo stands out for the way it situates Oviedo in the intellectual and artistic developments of the European Renaissance and for its brilliant analysis of the illustrations that Oviedo created to accompany his written work...[A] deeply erudite book written with breathtaking clarity."-- "The New American Antiquarian"

"[A]s a work of intellectual biography, Natural Designs succeeds admirably. It will remain indispensable to historians of natural history and science in the Spanish empire, and...it will remain unsurpassed as a portrait of Oviedo and his art."-- "H-Early America"

About the Author

Elizabeth Gansen is Associate Professor of Spanish at Grand Valley State University.