Antonio de León Pinelo (1589–1660) was a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

from the

Viceroyalty of Peru The Viceroyalty of Peru (), officially known as the Kingdom of Peru (), was a Monarchy of Spain, Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in ...

. Pinelo was born in Cordova de Tucuman to a

converso A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants. To safeguard the Old Christian popula ...

family, and educated in the College of the Jesuits of Lima. He travelled to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in 1612 and became attorney of the council of the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found i ...

. Then, he became judge of the tribunal of La Contratacion in Seville, succeeding Gil Gonzalez Davila in 1658 in the post of historian of the Indies. He died in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. Antonio de Leon Pinelo maintained at great length that Biblical Paradise was situated in America. He lived much of his early years in South America, particularly

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, Peru. The "cedularios" permitted initiating the compiling works, because they provided order to legal texts. Using those as a base, several Spanish jurists started writing the so-called "summaries", which were extracts of a new law or a mixture of several laws about the same theme. In this work, one of the first was Diego de Zorrilla, whose work was then revised by Rodrigo de Aguiar and lastly by Antonio de Leon Pinelo, who prepared a new project and in 1628 published the summaries of the 4 first books so they could be revised.

Works

*Around 1615 he began collecting all the decrees and ordinances that had been issued either by the home government or by the viceroys of the American possessions. He published his works in 1623 "Discurso de la importancia, de la forma, y de la disposicion de la colleccion de las leyes de Indias" (Seville, 1623). *After obtaining the king's approval to search the archives of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Simancas Simancas is a town and municipality of central Spain, located in the province of Valladolid, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated approximately 10 km southwest of the provincial capital Valladolid, on the r ...

, he published an abridged first part, "Sumario de la recopilacion general" (Seville, 1634). He completed the work in 1645, but its publication was deferred until 1680, when Vicente Gonzaga published it under the title " Recopilacion general de las leyes de las Indias " (4 vols., Madrid, 1680). *Epitome de la Biblioteca oriental y occidental, nautica y geografica (Madrid, 1629) *Tratado de confirmaciones reales, que se requieren para las Indias Occidentales (1630) * Cuestion moral si el chocolate quebronta el ayuno ecclesiastica (1636) *Tablas Cronologicas (1645) *Aparato politico de las Indias Occidentales (1653) *Vida de Santo Toribio arzobispo de Lima (1653) *El Paraiso en el Nuevo Mundo (1656) *Acuerdos del Concejo de Indias" (1658) Pinelo left also several manuscripts, some of which have been published since his death: *Politica de las Indias" (1829). *Bulario Indico. Code of the canonical laws in force in South America (1829). *Historia del Supremo Concejo de las Indias. *Las ha-zafias de Chile con su historia. *Fundacion v historia de la ciudad de Lima. *Descubrimiento y historia de Potosi. *Relacion de la provincia de Minche y Lacaudon.

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References

External links

*Spanish-language biography www.lp.edu.pe/hnos_pinelo.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon Pinelo, Antonio de 1589 births 1670s deaths Viceroyalty of Peru people 17th-century Spanish historians Spanish Jews Spanish people of Portuguese descent Spanish historians