Obras Completas I. Historia de Carlos V: libros I-V.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda (1490?1573) is best known for his defense of European cultural superiority as Spain debated the New World conquests in the mid-sixteenth century. His reputation has suffered by comparison to his opponent, Bartolome de Las Casas, who defended the rights of indigenous peoples. Because of this association and because many of his non-polemical writings have been available only in Latin, Sepulveda's contribution to sixteenth-century Spanish historiography is often ignored. Appointed court chronicler in 1536, Sepulveda was part of a group of royal historians commissioned to record the exploits of Emperor Charles V. Only he completed a chronicle of the reign during the sixteenth century. The editors of this series propose to reevaluate the author as humanist and make his work accessible to a broader audience.

This book, the first of six projected volumes, inaugurates the first complete translation of Sepulveda's Latin history of Charles V. To establish the author's credentials, the editors provide an extensive historical introduction, sketching Sepulveda's intellectual milieu and tracing his early education at the University of Alcala de Henares and later at the Colegio San Clemente in Bologna under the tutelage of Pietro Pomponazzi. They also discuss his correspondence with Erasmus and his other philosophical and juridical writing. This volume contains both the Latin original and a Spanish translation of Books One through Five, covering the early history of Spain, Charles V's problematic inheritance and succession to the Spanish throne, the comunero uprising, and the beginnings of his conflict with France.

The Sepulveda account of the early years of the reign diverges in several particulars from the partial histories written by his contemporaries. In his analysis of the comunero rebellion, for example, Sepulveda concludes that intolerable policies formulated by royal counselors provoked the uprising, an opinion shared by many twentieth-century historians. Although hardly a supporter of the comuneros, Sepulveda points out the inexperience of the young king and the arrogance of his Flemish advisors. By contrast, Pedro Mexia, a rival court chronicler, attributes the uprising to the machinations of the Devil and condemns those who took part. In this and several other instances, Sepulveda depicts the monarch in terms which are less than flattering, a practice unthinkable for royal historians later in the century. A broad range of literary scholars and historians will find this first volume interesting because it also contains Sepuveda's observations on the purposes and methods of historical writing.

The editors have produced a direct yet fluid translation which is easy to read, and their critical apparatus is impressive. Each book is preceded by a synopsis of its content. The Latin text appears on the left page and the Castillian translation on the right, both accompanied by extensive notes. Elena Rodriguez Peregrina's introduction to the life and works of Sepulveda (xxv-xxxiv) is complemented by Baltasar Cuart Moner's study of Sepulveda as chronicler, describing his interaction with the large community of historians writing during the reign of Charles V (xxxv-lxxxiii). A detailed philological study of the De rebus, also by Rodriguez Peregrina, addresses the language and style of Sepulveda's Latin text, with emphasis on his use of classical and Renaissance models (lxxxvcvii). The detailed, up-to-date bibliography will be of special interest to scholars of Renaissance historical writing (cix-cxxi). As a result of this translation, modern readers will be able to judge Sepulveda as royal historian rather than simply as polemicist.

DIANE E. SIEBER University of Colorado, Boulder