1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pulgar, Hernando de

PULGAR, HERNANDO DE (1436–c. 1492), Spanish prose-writer, was born at Pulgar (near Toledo) in 1436 and was educated at the court of John II. Henry IV. made him one of his secretaries, and under Isabella he became councillor of state, was charged with a mission to France, and in 1482 was appointed historiographer-royal. He is said to have died in 1492. His Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, wrongly ascribed in the first edition (1565) to Antonio de Lebrija, is often inaccurate and always obsequious; but the record is not without value as regards events within the author’s personal experience. Pulgar’s Claros Varones de Castilla (1486), an account of celebrities at the court of Henry IV., is interesting in matter and style. He compiled a commentary (1485?) on the Coplas de Mingo Revulgo. His Letters, written to various persons of eminence, were first published in 1485–1486.