Pedro Simón
Fray Pedro Simón | |
|---|---|
 Painting of Pedro Simón (1941) | |
| Born | 1574 San Lorenzo de la Parrilla, Spain |
| Died | ca. 1628 Ubaté, New Kingdom of Granada |
| Language | Spanish |
| Subject | Muisca religion, mythology, History of Colombia and Venezuela |
| Notable work | Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias occidentales (1626) |
Fray Pedro Simón (San Lorenzo de la Parrilla, Spain, 1574 - Ubaté, New Kingdom of Granada, ca. 1628) was a Spanish Franciscan friar, professor and chronicler of the indigenous peoples of modern-day Colombia and Venezuela, at the time forming the New Kingdom of Granada. Pedro Simón is one of the most important Muisca scholars whose writings were the basis for later scholars such as Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita,[1][2] Alexander von Humboldt,[3][better source needed] and twenty first-century scholar Javier Ocampo López.[4]
Biography
[edit]Pedro Simón studied in Cartagena, Spain and went to Cartagena de Indias in 1603.[5] Simón accompanied Juan de Borja and described his war against the Pijao in 1608.[6] On 3 June 1623, he was named Custodio de la Provincia Franciscana del Nuevo Reino de Granada ("custodian of the franciscan province of the New Kingdom of Granada").[6][7]
In this year he began writing his most notable work Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales, of which the initial section was published in Cuenca, Spain in 1627.[6][7] The full text appeared for the first time in five volumes in post-independence Bogotá in 1882–1892. Later editions are dated 1953, 1963 and 1982. In the nineteenth century, one part was published in English translation under the title The Expedition of Pedro de Ursua and Lope de Aguirre (London, 1861).[5][8] After finishing this work, Simón settled in the San Diego convent in Ubaté, Cundinamarca, where he died sometime between October 1626 and May 7, 1628.[6][7]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Fernández de Piedrahita, Obispos que han ocupado la silla de Panama]] Publisher: Escuela Tipográfica Salesiana (1929) | P. 91-98
- ^ Historia general de las conquistas de; Nuevo Reyno de Granada, a la S.C.R.M. de D. Carlos Segundo, 1688
- ^ Humboldt, 1807
- ^ Ocampo López, 2013, p.9
- ^ a b (in Spanish) Biography Pedro Simón - Biografías y Vidas
- ^ a b c d (in Spanish) Biography Pedro Simón - Cervantes Institute
- ^ a b c (in Spanish) Biography Pedro Simón - Pueblos Originarios
- ^ 2010 reprint: The Expedition of Pedro de Ursua and Lope de Aguirre in Search of El Dorado and Omagua in 1560–1 - Translated from Fray Pedro Simon's Sixth Historical Notice of the Conquest of Tierra Firme by William Bollaert
Further reading
[edit]- Fernández de Piedrahita, Lucas (1688), Historia general de las conquistas del Nuevo Reino de Granada (in Spanish), retrieved 2016-07-08
- Humboldt, Alexander von (1807), "VI", Sitios de las Cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas de América - Calendario de los indios muiscas - Parte 1 - Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas - Muisca calendar - Part 1 (in Spanish), Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, retrieved 2016-07-08
- Ocampo López, Javier (2013), Mitos y leyendas indígenas de Colombia - Indigenous myths and legends of Colombia (in Spanish), Bogotá, Colombia: Plaza & Janes Editores Colombia S.A., pp. 1–219, ISBN 978-958-14-1416-1
- Simón, Pedro (1892) [1626], Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias occidentales (1882-92) vol.1-5 (in Spanish), retrieved 2016-07-08
