Antonio de Guevara

Antonio de Guevara was a Spanish bishop and author. In 1527 he was named royal chronicler to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. His first book Libro áureo first appeared in pirated editions the following year. This pseudo-historical book of incidents and letters from the life of Marcus Aurelius was translated into nearly every language of Europe, including Russian, Swedish, Hungarian, Polish, Armenian, and Romanian. The popularity of Guevara’s book led scholar and translator Méric Casaubon to remark that no book besides the Bible was so often translated as Guevara’s Relox de principes, or Dial of Princes. Besides his book of Marcus Aurelius, Guevara wrote eight other books, some of which continued to be translated and republished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.