Zinny, Antonio (1821–1890)

The historian, writer, and journalist Antonio Zinny, born in Gibraltar in 1821, came to Buenos Aires in 1842 and became a naturalized Argentine citizen. His principal works are of great importance to South American historiography: Historia de los gobernadores de las provincias argentinas (1879), Índice de la Gaceta de Buenos Aires, desde 1810 a 1821 (1875), Bibliografía histórica del Paraguay y Misiones (1887), La Gaceta Mercantil de Buenos Aires 1823–1852: Resumen de su contenido (published posthumously in 1912), and the biographies of important Argentine politicians including Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811–1888), Juan Martín de Pueyrredón (1776–1850), and Ignació Alvarez Thomas (1787–1857).

Zinny was dedicated to public education and was one of the founders of the Colegio Argentino, in the province of Corrientes. He also contributed to important national newspapers of the period, such as La Tribuna and La Nación. As a historian he carried out important research work, including the cataloging and synthesis of the dailies, La Gaceta de Buenos Aires (1810–1821) and La Gaceta Mercantil (1823–1852). On the political journalism of the Río de la Plata area in the postcolonial years, he also published Efemeridografía argirometropolitana hasta la caída del gobierno de Rosas (1869) and Historia de la prensa periódica de la República Oriental del Uruguay, 1807–1852 (1883). Zinny died in Buenos Aires in 1890.

See alsoArgentina: The Nineteenth Century; Pueyrredón, Juan Martín de; Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benítez, José Antonio. Los Orígenes del Periodismo en Nuestra América. Buenos Aires: Lumen, 2000.

Zinny, Antonio. La Gaceta Mercantil de Buenos Aires, 1823–1852: Resumen de su contenido con relación á la parte americana y con especialidad á la historia de la República Argentina, 3 vols. Buenos Aires, 1912.

Zinny, Antonio. Estudios biográficos. Buenos Aires: Hachette, 1958.

                                          Vicente Palermo