BERNAL DÍAZ DEL CASTILLO. — Spanish chronicler, b. at Medina del Campo in 1492, d. c. 1581. He went to America in 1514 with P. Davila and took part in the expedition for the discovery of Yucatán; later he assisted in the conquest of Mexico.
In opposition to Gómara, who had attributed the sole glory of the conquest of Mexico to Cortés, D. composed his *Verdadera historia de los sucesos de la conquista de la Nueva España* (published in 1632, V. critical ed., Madrid 1941), aimed at showing the part played by the army in the conquest of Mexico.
Bibl.: I. Villier Villamil, *Observaciones acerca de la Historia...*, in *Anales del Museo Nacional de arqueología, historia y etnografía*, 7 (1931), pp. 119-46; R. Iglesias, *Introducción al estudio de B. D. del C. y de su Verdadera Historia*, Mexico 1941; E. Fueter, *Storia della storia*.