https://doi.org/10.1177/0073275317712864 History of Science 2017, Vol. 55(2) 167–186 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0073275317712864 journals.sagepub.com/home/hos HOS Too much to tell: Narrative styles of the first descriptions of the natural world of the Indies Henrique Leitão Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, University of Lisbon Antonio Sánchez Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, University of Lisbon Abstract Describing a Mundus Novus was a very singular task in the sixteenth century. It was an effort shaped by a permanent inherent tension between novelty and normality, between the immense variety of new facts (some extraordinary) and the demand of credibility. How did these inner strains affect the narrative style of the first descriptions of the natural world of ‘the Indies’? How were the first European observers of the nature of America able to simultaneously transmit the idea of immensity and regularity (mundus), and that of novelty (novus)? How did they attempt to describe new worlds knowing that there was a lot – perhaps too much – to tell? This paper focuses not on the much- discussed epistemological issues related to those questions, but on their narrative and stylistic consequences. We argue that the first Europeans meeting the new realities of the Americas or India had to meet new challenges, and these translated into texts with specific characteristics. Thus, their first descriptions are essentially different from the texts about the natural world that were written before or after the ‘discovery’. We show that they adopted very specific discursive approaches, and were deeply influenced by the credibility strategies of the medical profession in which they had been trained. Keywords Natural history, New World, Iberian naturalists, narratives styles, living voice, autoptes Corresponding author: Henrique Leitão, Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal. Email: leitao.henrique@gmail.com 712864HOS 0 0 10.1177/0073275317712864History of ScienceLeitão and Sánchez research-article 2017 Special Issue: Iberian Science: Reflections and Studies