PETER MARTYR D'ANGHIERA

born Feb. 2, 1457, Arona, Milan died October 1526, Granada, Spain Italian Pietro Martire D'anghiera, Spanish Pedro Mrtir De Anghiera 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 valuable source material for the period.