Jose Toribio Medina Biography

José Toribio Medina

(Santiago de Chile, 1852-1930) Historian, bibliographer and scholar, considered the most distinguished and laborious bibliographer in Latin America.He studied at the English School of Valparaíso and later at the National Institute, where he was a disciple of Diego Barros Arana, Miguel Luis Amunátegui, Rodulfo Armando Philipi and Ramón Briceño.He studied law at the University of Chile and, in just three years, became a lawyer (1872).

But he soon moved away from the world of law and entered the diplomatic career, for which he made numerous trips (Peru, the United States, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico and several countries in Europe, especially Spain ), in a tireless search for sources and documents on the history and letters of his country.He was secretary of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education.

Of his prolific work (in total, about 500 titles) we can mention: History of colonial Chilean literature (1878), The aborigines of Chile (1882), Colonial Biographical Dictionary of Chile (1906), The printing press in Mexico (1911), The primitive American Inquisition (1493-1569) , Female literature in Chile (1923), Letters from Pedro de Valdivia that deal with the discovery and conquest of Chile (1929).

He also edited the collection Historiadores de Chile (volume XXX to XL) and the Collection of unpublished documents for the history of Chile (1888-1902, in 30 vols.).Its invaluable archive-library contained some 40,000 volumes, 1,688 original documents and 8,659 transcribed documents and other manuscripts.In 1923 he was the object of a tribute in Chile, after which he gave the State his legacy, which today makes up the Medina Room of the National Library, the most valuable material on the colonial history of Latin America, which his best disciple, Guillermo Feliú Cruz, was sorting.

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