Calle Garibay

Esteban de Garibay y Zamalloa was born in Mondragón in 1533 and died in Madrid in 1599. He devoted his life to history and genealogy until Philip II named him royal chronicler in 1592. His great work was the Cuarenta libros del compendio historial, the first attempt to tell the history of the Spains in one go: kingdoms, lineages and dynasties chained together from their origins. He composed it over a decade and managed to print it in Antwerp, at the workshops of the famous Plantin, around 1570. The project ruined him: printing and shipping the volumes left him buried in debt. Garibay was also drawn to his native land. He gathered proverbs in Basque and ancient funeral chants, the eresiak tied to the old clan wars, today among the earliest records of that oral tradition. The calle Garibay is in Adelfas, a Retiro neighborhood where much of the street map honors writers and chroniclers.