Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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El Primer Nueva Corónica
y Buen Gobierno
Inscribed 2007
What is it
A 1200-page autograph manuscript written in Spanish
with Quechua words and phrases and including 400 fullpage
line drawings, of Andean Indian life before and after
the Spanish conquest in the 1530s.
Why was it inscribed
The manuscript is the only one extant conveying an
Andean Indian viewpoint on pre-conquest Andean
history and Inca rule, the Spanish conquest and early
Spanish colonial rule.
Where is it
Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark
El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno or ‘The First
New Chronicle and Good Government’ (it is assumed
that the writer misspelled the word ‘crónica’) was written
by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, a Peruvian nobleman
born shortly after the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532.
Although the manuscript is unsigned, Guaman Poma
has been identified as its author from other documents
and manuscripts.
As one of the first generation born under Spanish
rule, Guaman Poma was in a unique position to assess
the strengths and weaknesses of both pre-conquest
indigenous society and the new practices the Spanish
colonizers brought in government, language, religion
and culture.
Guaman Poma is believed to have worked as a translator
for Spanish clerics in Peru, but in 1600 he was banished
from his lands after losing them and his title in a series
of unsuccessful lawsuits. His banishment is thought to
have precipitated his travels around the country and, as a
result, the Corónica which is thought to have been written
between 1600 and 1615. The manuscript is in the form of an
appeal to King Philip III of Spain.
Guaman Poma gave an account of ancient Inca history
and claimed the land was given to the Peruvians by God.
He had seen at first hand abuses perpetrated by Spanish
incomers and urged Philip to reform the administration
of Peru by appointing local people, claiming the Incas’
212 El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno
�� Title page of the manuscript
government was more benevolent. In essence, his vision
was intended to combine the best of the two systems.
Like his European contemporaries, he regarded the king
as divinely appointed and did not question his rule. His
ideal vision for Peru included Christianity and the technical
superiority of the Spanish within a context of Inca culture
and society. This Inca-Spanish synthesis was also reflected
in his own Quechua and Spanish name.
The Danes came into possession of the manuscript in the
1660s, less than 50 years after it was written. It is assumed
to have been presented to the Danish King Frederic III by a
Danish ambassador to the Spanish court who was himself
a book collector. The manuscript was rediscovered in the
Royal Library in 1908 and has now been transcribed and
scanned with its own website where the illustrations and
relevant resources can also be viewed.