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Secondary sourceBook1913-1914

Title Vignettes, El Descubrimiento del Océano Pacífico

José Toribio Medina · 1913-1914

Title page vignettes from José Toribio Medina's early 20th-century study documenting Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean.

A scholarly study compiling documents and research on Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean.

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Title page of volume II of El descubrimiento del Océano Pacífico by J. T. Medina, with a small engraved vignette of a bearded man in a feathered hat and ornate border, above text noting Santiago de Chile, Imprenta Universitaria, MCMXIII.
José Toribio Medina, El descubrimiento del Océano Pacífico, vol. II, 1913.

About this source

What it is

These are title-page vignettes from El descubrimiento del Océano Pacífico, a multi-volume study by the Chilean historian José Toribio Medina, with volumes on Núñez de Balboa published around 1913-1914, including a volume of documents relating to him.

Why it matters

Medina's work is a later historical study, not a document from Balboa's own time, but it gathered and presented documents and research on Balboa's expedition for modern readers and scholars.

  • Why might a historian in early 20th-century Chile be interested in researching a Spanish conquistador from centuries earlier?
  • What is the difference between a primary document and a modern collection of documents like this one?
  • What might the decorative vignette on the title page suggest about how the book wanted to present its subject?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Vasco Nunez de Balboa on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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