Gonzalo Fernandez De Oviedo Y Valdes, a Spanish chronicler, born in Madrid in 1478, died in Valladolid in 1557. He was educated at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, as one of the pages of Prince Juan. In 1513 he was sent to Santo Domingo as supervisor of gold smeltings, and passed there almost the whole of his subsequent life, holding various offices and occasionally revisiting Spain. Having been appointed historiographer of the Indies, with authority to demand from the Spanish American governors whatever documents he needed, he composed his Historia general y natural de las Indias Occidentales, in 50 books, 21 of which were published in Seville in 1535 (translated into Latin, Basel, 1555; German, 1579).

A summary of the work had been published ten years earlier (new ed., Madrid, 1850). This work was denounced by Las Casas as little better than fabulous; but Las Casas was a bitter enemy of the author, whom he accused of rapacity and cruelty in his government. In his 79th year Oviedo finished his valuable work entitled Las quinquagenas, in which he gives under the form of dialogues a full, gossipping, and anecdotical account of all the principal persons of Spain of his time. It is still in manuscript in the royal library at Madrid. He also wrote chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella and Charles V.; and a life of Cardinal Ximenes is attributed to him. His description of Nicaragua forms vol. xv. (His-toire de Nicaragua) of H. Ternaux-Compans's Voyages, relations et mémoires originaux pour servir á l'histoire de la decouverte de V Amérique (Paris, 1840-'41); and the chief part of his Historia general forms vol. iii. of Remusio's Delle navigazioni e viaggi (Venice, 1583, frequently republished).