Luis Tribaldos de Toledo (1558-1634)

Luis Tribaldos de Toledo (in Latin: Ludowicus Tribaldus Toletus) was born in 1558 in or near the town of San Clemente de la Mancha in Spain.  He learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew as well as several modern European languages.  He was a humanist noted among his contemporaries for his learning and his style.  He published several historical and geographical works, and edited many more, as well as making translations from Greek and Latin and writing poetry in Spanish and in Latin.

In the 1580s/1590s, he was a professor of rhetoric at the Complutense University at Alcalá.  He was then tutor to Juan de Tasis, who would later become the second count of Villamediana.  In 1603 he accompanied his pupil’s father on a diplomatic mission to England in the capacity of Latin interpreter, and may have accompanied him on a subsequent visit to France and Flanders in 1605.  Tribaldos remained in the circle of Juan de Tasis until the latter’s death in 1622.  After this he seems to have served briefly as librarian to the Duke-Count of Olivares, who was at the time the most powerful man in Spain. 

In 1625 Tribaldos was appointed to the official government position of Chronicler of the Indies, in which capacity he edited for publication several histories and chronicles of the New World.   He himself wrote a history of the recent wars conducted by Spain against the native tribes in Chile, a work notable for the accuracy of its account.  Tribaldos died in October 1634 in Madrid.