Claros varones de Castilla ; Letras

In his dedication to Queen Elizabeth, Pulgar clearly defines the purpose of his gallery of portraits, making clear the classical roots of his inspiration: "I, very excellent queen and lady, raised from a young age in the court of the king, your father, and King Don Enrique, your brother, moved with that love of my land that the others had of theirs, I prepared to write of some clear men, pearly and gentlemen, natives of your kingdoms, that I knew and communicated, whose exploits and remarkable deeds, if they were particularly to be recounted, required a great story to be made of each one. which it may well be believed that in authority of persons and in ornament of virtues and in the skills that they possessed, as well in science as in arms, they were not less excellent than those Greeks and Romans and French who are so much l heard in their writings".