Fernando Cortes - Macnutt, Francis Augustus

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Biographie:
Papal Marquis Francis Augustus MacNutt, a Catholic writer and diplomat from Indiana who lived from February 15, 1863, to December 30, 1927, rose to prominence at the Vatican as a high-ranking official. Francis Augustus MacNutt was a renowned playwright and historian as well as an American ambassador for a while. The classic Christmas poem The Night Before Christmas was written by Clement Clarke Moore's granddaughter Margaret Ogden, whom MacNutt married. The couple settled in Rome at the Palazzo Pamphilj on Piazza Navona. Senior Catholic Church officials and members of the Roman nobility congregated in their home, which served as a social hub. It is now the Brazilian Embassy. MacNutt held great sway within the Vatican and maintained strong relationships with three popes: Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV, as well as two Cardinal Secretaries of State, Rafael Merry del Val and Mariano Rampolla. He developed close relationships with the imperial family, especially Empress Zita, in the Austrian Imperial Court, where his influence was equally well-known. He was offered the title of baron in Austria but tactfully declined the position....

Sommaire:
Here conquest explains itself. These are no ordinary reports. In Fernando Cortes: His Five Letters of Relation to the Emperor Charles V (Volume I), translator Francis Augustus MacNutt gathers the extraordinary correspondence in which Hernan Cortes defended and narrated his actions in 16th century New Spain to his sovereign. Written at the very moment of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, these historical letters of conquest reveal the ambitions, calculations and justifications behind campaigns that culminated in the fall of the Aztec Empire and the birth of early colonial Mexico history. Candid and strategic by turns, the famous Cortes letters to Charles V stand among the most compelling first-hand records of empire, diplomacy and violence in the early modern world. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike. Ideal as a primary source history collection for history students, a solid reference for academic research on conquest, empire and indigenous encounters, and an engrossing narrative for general readers, this translated conquistador letters edition sits comfortably beside the classic eyewitness accounts for readers of Bernal Diaz and for fans of William Prescott histories. For anyone seeking to understand how power was argued, rationalised and recorded on paper at the dawn of European expansion, MacNutt's landmark translation offers an indispensable window into the making of New World empires....