Castellanos, Juan p®, b. in Spain in the first half of the sixteenth century; date of death unknown. He came to America previous to 1545 as a cavalry soldier, and acquired some means on the Pearl Coast. Abandoning the military profession he became a secular priest at Cartagena and, declining the dignities of canon and treasurer, went as curate to Tunja on the Colombian table-land. There he composed his epic poem, “ legias de Varones ilustres de Indias”, the first part of which appeared at Madrid in 1588, and the first three parts in 1837. The remainder of the work is still in manuscript. The Lenox Branch of the New York Public Library possesses a complete and handsome copy. The verse is better than that of Ercilla’s “Araucana”; it treats successively of the deeds of the principal Spaniards. who distinguished themselves in America, beginning with Columbus, and is an invaluable source for the colonial history of northern South America, including many details of ethnography and ethnology.
Castellanos enjoyed the advantage of being among the earliest conquerors”, and was acquainted with nearly every prominent leader of the time. He relies to some extent upon Oviedo for many details, stating. that Oviedo communicated to him verbally what he knew by personal experience of the settlement at Cartagena. Castellanos’ poem is the second of a series of epic compositions in Spanish treating of the early colonization of America, Ercilla’s being the earliest in date of publication.
Besides the not always exact information imparted by Anau in his edition of the second and third part of the Elegias, the following may be consulted: Nicolas ANTONIO, Bibliotheca hispana nova (Madrid, 1733-38); Antonio Leon y Pinelo, Epitome, etc. (Madrid, 2nd. ed. 1737-88); Acosta, Compendio historico del Descubrimiento y de la Colonizacién de la Nueva Granada (Paris, 1848).
A full discussion of the life of Castellanos, as far as data are accessible, is given by Vuroara, Historia de la literatura en Nueva Granada. Tun Hakuvyr Society in MAnKram’s tr. of The Expedition of Ursa and Aguirre has some biographical information, taken from Acosra. Allusions to Castellanos are also in BANpwriwr, Gilded Man (New York, 1898). MunoprBuRU, Diccionario hist. biog. (Lima, 1876), IT, contains a notice in which there are some errors. He attributes to Castellanos the authorship of a Historia Indiana, about which, however, nothing else is known.
Ad. F. Bandelier.