Peter Martyr d’Anghiera

Peter Martyr d’Anghiera (born Feb. 2, 1457, Arona, Milan—died October 1526, Granada, Spain) was a chaplain to the court of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, and historian of Spanish explorations, who became a member of Emperor Charles V’s Council of the Indies (1518). He collected unidentified documents from the various discoverers, including Christopher Columbus, and wrote De Orbe Novo (published 1530; “On the New World”), in which the first European reference to India rubber appears in the description of an Aztec game. His collection of 812 letters is a valuable source material for the period.