Jerónimo de Vivar was a Spanish historian of the early conquest and settlement of the Kingdom of Chile, and author of Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile. Little is known about his life except that according to his own conclusion to the Crónica he was born in Burgos, Spain. He had come to the Indies some time before coming to Chile but no record of his passage was recorded. It is thought he arrived in Chile with the forces returning in 1549, from Peru with Francisco de Villagra overland. This gave him an opportunity to make detailed observation on the places and people in northern Chile that appear in the Crónica.