gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas’s Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las islas i tierra firme del mar océano is an extensive official history of Spanish exploration and conquest in the Americas, covering events from 1492 to 1531. Drawing upon royal archives, reports, letters, and earlier chronicles, Herrera recounts the voyages of discovery, conquests of Mexico and other regions, encounters with Indigenous peoples, establishment of Spanish settlements, and the geography, customs, resources, and commerce of the New World. Of particular interest to gemologists are numerous references to gold, silver, pearls, emeralds, turquoise, greenstones, and other precious and ornamental materials encountered, traded, presented as tribute, or seized during the conquests. The work provides important evidence for European perceptions of Indigenous valuables and for the sources, uses, and circulation of precious materials in the Americas during the early colonial period, although Herrera wrote several decades after many of the events he describes.