Pietro Martire d' Anghiera

Born in Arona in 1457, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera — often known in English as Peter Martyr d'Anghiera — built his career as a humanist, diplomat, and historian in Spain. He served the Catholic Monarchs and moved in court circles at a time when Spain was expanding its power across the Atlantic.

He is best remembered for writing some of the earliest European accounts of the Americas. Drawing on reports from Columbus and other explorers, he described new lands, peoples, and voyages in works that circulated widely and became an important source for later historians.

His writing sits at the crossroads of Renaissance scholarship and imperial expansion: part court history, part eyewitness-era reporting. For listeners interested in exploration, empire, and the first wave of transatlantic storytelling, his work offers a direct window into how Europe first tried to make sense of the New World.