Diego de San Pedro

Diego de San Pedro , fl. 1450, Spanish writer. He is best known for two sentimental novels that influenced the later development of the Spanish novel. They are Tratado de amores de Arnalte y Lucena [treatise on the loves of Arnalte and Lucena] (1491) and Cárcel de amor [prison of love] (1492).

Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de (1475–1519), the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean. He first arrived in the New World in 1501 as a follower of Roderigo de Bastidas in his voyage of discovery along the coast of present-day Colombia. After an unsuccessful period as a plantation owner in Hispaniola, Balboa was forced in 1510 to flee his creditors. He escaped as a stowaway on an expedition to reinforce a colony on the Colombian coast of Urabá which included the future conqueror of Peru Francisco de Pizarro (c.1475–1541). On Balboa's advice, the colony moved to Darién on the Isthmus of Panama, and in 1511 Balboa was named the new colony's interim governor and captain general.

In the course of subjugating the hinterland Balboa heard of an ocean beyond the mountains and of a country full of gold. When this news reached Spain a large expedition was dispatched with great enthusiasm. However, Balboa was not given command of it, as his enemies had turned King Ferdinand of Spain against him. Instead, an elderly nobleman, Pedro Arias Dávila, was sent to replace him as governor. But Balboa did not await the arrival of the expedition or the new governor. On 1 September 1513 he gathered an expedition of 190 Spaniards, including Pizarro, and 1,000 of the local inhabitants, to try and find the ocean. Twenty-four days later he reached the summit of the mountain barrier where the distant ocean came in sight. Reaching the coast on 29 September, Balboa formally took possession of the ‘Great South Sea’, or the South Seas as it came to be called, in the name of King Ferdinand of Spain. After visiting the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama, he made a triumphant return to Darién loaded with treasure.

Balboa's discovery restored the king's confidence in him. He was appointed adelantado, or admiral, of the newly discovered ‘Great South Sea’ and governor of Panama and Coiba, but was still subject to Dávila's authority. The jealousy and rivalry between Balboa and Dávila intensified, but eventually Balboa was given grudging permission to explore the ‘Great South Sea’. This he succeeded in doing by having two small ships built which were transported in pieces across the mountains to the ocean. In them Balboa explored the Gulf of San Miguel (1517–18), part of the Gulf of Panama, and took possession of the Pearl Islands; and only adverse weather prevented him from anticipating Pizarro's descent on Peru. He was then recalled by Dávila, ostensibly for a friendly meeting but in reality to face trumped up charges of treason. Dávila levelled these accusations at Balboa to protect himself from charges that he, Dávila, was facing and which he knew Balboa would support. Enticing him to Acla, near Darién, Dávila had Balboa seized, tried, and, largely on the evidence of Pizarro, condemned to death, and on 1 January 1519 he was executed in Acla's public square.

See also exploration by sea.

Siloé, Diego de (c.1490–1563). Spanish Renaissance architect and sculptor of Flemish descent. He travelled in Italy before returning to Burgos in 1519 where he designed a number of works including the symmetrical Escalera Dorada (Golden Staircase) in the Cathedral (1515–23) derived in part from Bramante's work at the Belvedere Court in the Vatican (begun 1505), although much encrusted in a plethora of grotesque ornament, probably influenced by the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. In 1528 he was called to Granada to complete the Church of San Jerónimo, and then to design the Cathedral in the Renaissance style, with its huge domed chancel, which, with ambulatory and chapels, suggests a centralized building (e.g. Santa Costanza, Rome), a martyrium, or a sepulchre, e.g. the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the ensemble cleverly joined to a five-aisled basilica. This brilliant design was to be influential. Other works by Siloé include the arcaded courtyard of the Colegio Fonseca, Salamanca (1529–34), and the plans for San Salvador, Ubeda (1536—built by Andrés de Vandelvira (fl. 1536–60) with a rotunda owing much to the precedent of Siloé's work at Granada Cathedral). He is regarded as a master of the Plateresque style.

Bibliography

Chueca Goitia (1953);
Kubler & and Soria (1959);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Rosenthal (1961);
Jane Turner (1996)