''El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

: ''The First New Chronicle and Good Government'') is a Peruvian chronicle finished around 1615. Its author, the indigenous Peruvian

Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala (Fane, 165after 1616), also known as Huamán Poma or Waman Poma, was a Quechua nobleman known for chronicling and denouncing the ill treatment of the natives of the Andes by the Spanish Empire after their conquest of ...

, sent it as a handwritten manuscript to King

Philip III of Spain Philip III (; 14 April 1578 – 31 March 1621) was King of Spain and King of Portugal, Portugal (where he is known as Philip II of Portugal) during the Iberian Union. His reign lasted from 1598 until his death in 1621. He held dominion over the S ...

. His purpose was to give a historical account of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

from the earliest human beings to the

Incas The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

and the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

; it was also meant as a call of attention towards the deep problems caused by Spanish government in the region. The manuscript was never published and its location for the next several centuries was unknown. The scholar Richard Pietschmann rediscovered it at the

Royal Danish Library Royal Danish Library () is a merger of the two previous national libraries in Denmark: the State and University Library in Aarhus and the Royal Library in Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, wit ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in 1908;

Paul Rivet Paul Rivet (; 7 May 1876 – 21 March 1958) was a French ethnologist known for founding the Musée de l'Homme in 1937. In his professional work, Rivet is known for his theory that South America was originally populated in part by migrants ...

published a facsimile edition in Paris in 1936. Some researchers believe that the manuscript traveled from Spain to Denmark via the library of the Count-Duke of Olivares, in Spain, part of which was sold to Cornelius Pedersen Lerche, ambassador of Denmark in Spain. Nevertheless, this is only speculation.

Content

The chronicle covers ancient Andean history, the rise of the Inca empire, the Spanish conquest in the 1530s, and early colonial society and government. Guamán Poma's discussion of Inca rule describes religion, social order, legislation, annual festivals and economic organization, as well as the functions of the different social groups. His narrative of Inca and pre-Inca times is often inaccurate according to modern understandings, but reflects how the Incas were remembered in the early colonial period, as well as Guamán Poma's distinctive ideas. Approximately half the book is dedicated to a description and harsh critique of Spanish colonial rule; scholars consider this section of the book as a uniquely valuable and reliable historical source. The book contains a large number of detailed illustrations which are often reproduced in books and articles about pre-conquest and colonial Peru. Guamán Poma dedicated the book to King

, in the hope of improving colonial rule, but there is no evidence that the king ever saw the book.

Reprint

* Hackett Publishing, abridged edition, 2006,

Appropriations

Several pages of this manuscript were appropriated in the four large drawings on canvas with polychrome frames (''¡Traga!'', ''¡Corre!'', ''¡Sopla!'', ''¡Muere!'') made in 1992 by the painter

Herman Braun-Vega Herman Braun-Vega (7 July 1933 in Lima — 2 April 2019 in Paris) was a Peruvian painter and artist. Although his work has always been figurative, it was at first (before 1970) close to abstraction. It experienced a decisive turning point when t ...

for his Madrid retrospective on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. With the transfers of press clippings combined with drawings by Guamán Poma and engravings by Goya, Herman Braun-Vega highlights the suffering of civilians, eternal victims of wars. Braun-Vega again references Guamán Poma's drawings in his painting ''El poder se nutre de dogmas (Velázquez, Guaman Poma de Ayala, El Greco, Goya)'', this time to highlight the Church's role in the Spanish conquest through the evangelization of Peru's indigenous people.

Bibliography

* Adorno, Rolena. ''Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru'', Texas University Press, 2000

References

External links

* Nueva crónica y buen gobierno, by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala. Tom

(pdf) in Spanish from Archive.org.
"Guamán Poma - El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno"
nbsp;– A high-quality digital version of the Corónica, scanned from the original manuscript. {{DEFAULTSORT:Primer Nueva Coronica Y Buen Gobierno 1615 books 17th-century history books 17th-century manuscripts 1908 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Denmark Peruvian literature American chronicles Memory of the World Register Indigenous topics of the Andes Inca Philip III of Spain