Note 216 — Chapter V · 1493-1506.

Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, commonly called Peter Martyr, a descendant of an illustrious Milanese family originally from Anghiera, on the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore, in upper Italy, was born in 1455 at Arona, on the western border of the lake. He was carried to the baptismal font by a friar of the Dominican order and christened with the name of Peter, that of the martyr of 1252, whose feast-day falls on the twenty-ninth of April. In 1477, he went to Rome to fit himself for the priesthood. There he became acquainted with the Castilian embassador, the Count of Tendilla, and was induced to return with him to Spain, in 1487. From King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella he received a number of honoring commissions. He followed the royal standard through two campaigns. In 1501 he was sent to Egypt to conciliate the sultan. He returned to Spain in August, 1502. The mission to Egypt furnished him with some of the material for his Latin work, entitled: “P. Martyris Angli Mediolanensis opera Legatio Babylonica, Oceani decas, poemata, epigrammata.” In 1505 he was made prior of the cathedral of Granada. Pope Leo X. honored him with the office of apostolical prothonotary. As a royal counsellor in the affairs of the Indies he acquired a very extensive range of information respecting the early voyages of discovery made to the New World. His work: “De Orbe Novo Petri Martyris ab Angleria Mediolanensis protonotarij Cesaris senatoris decades,” contains valuable historical matter. His letters, eight hundred and more, in the collection entitled “Opus epistolarum,” the first dated January 1, 1488, the last May, 1525, throw considerable light upon the numerous facts relating to the voyages of Columbus and other navigators of his time. His “Legatio Babylonica” was first printed at Seville (Hispalis) in 1511; his “De Orbe Novo” and letters at Alcala (Complutum) in 1530. He died in 1525, and was entombed in the cathedral of Grenada.