Natural Designs: Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and the Invention of New World Nature (The Early Modern Americas)

Natural Designs by Elizabeth Gansen is a groundbreaking book that sheds light on the life and work of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, the earliest and most influential Spanish historian of the New World.

Through a combination of biography and visual and textual analysis, Gansen explores how Oviedo brought the European Renaissance to bear on his understanding of New World nature.

The book foregrounds Oviedo’s role as a writer, illustrator, and editor of New World nature, and situates readers in the early sixteenth century to reappraise the works of this pioneering historian.

Natural Designs is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the Americas, the intersection of art and science, or the impact of the European Renaissance on the New World.