Note 64 — Chapter V · LA ARAUCANA

There was generally a lack of biographical information concerning early writers whether in Spain or in America. One had only an imperfect knowledge of his contemporaries. Cristóbal Mosquera de Figueroa wrote in 1596 that Ercilla was writing a poem on the victories of the Marqués de Santa Cruz, but at that time the poet had been dead two years. For more than a hundred years after Cervantes’ death no biography of him had been published. The first one was published in London in 1738. Ercilla, however, in a measure provided against such lack of knowledge concerning himself by recording in La Araucana many of the incidents and circumstances of his life. See volume containing Ercilla’s Vida in Medina’s Edición del centenario.