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| Chronicle of Guamán Poma | |
|---|---|
| Title | Chronicle of Guamán Poma |
| Author | Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala |
| Language | Quechua and Spanish |
| Date | ca. 1615–1616 |
| Format | Manuscript with illustrations |
| Location | Royal Library, Copenhagen (Rosenborg Castle) |
Chronicle of Guamán Poma The Chronicle of Guamán Poma is an early seventeenth-century illustrated manuscript by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala that addresses the Spanish monarchs and colonial officials about conditions in the Andes. The work combines narrative, petition, and visual commentary directed to Philip III of Spain, Kingdom of Spain, and colonial institutions such as the Viceroyalty of Peru and the Audiencia of Lima. It intervenes in disputes involving indigenous communities, Andean nobles, and clergy while engaging with texts like the New Laws (1542) and debates shaped by figures such as Bartolomé de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria.
Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, an indigenous noble of the Inca Empire lineage from the region of Huamanga (Ayacucho), composed the manuscript after encountering colonial administrations in places including Lima, Cusco, Seville, and possibly Madrid. Guamán Poma positions himself among Andean elites like the descendants of Túpac Yupanqui and interlocutors with Spanish jurists linked to the Council of the Indies and officials such as the Viceroy of Peru. His plea references precedents in Iberian and imperial legal culture including appeals to the Casa de Contratación, litigious practices seen in audiencia records, and polemics involving priests of orders such as the Dominican Order, Franciscan Order, and Jesuits.
The manuscript, composed in a mix of Quechua and early modern Spanish language, unfolds as a long missive addressed to Philip III of Spain and structured into a prologue, narrative chapters, lists of grievances, and hundreds of drawings. Guamán Poma organizes material akin to administrative petitions and chronicles like those by Garcilaso de la Vega and Pedro Cieza de León, while inserting visual sequences comparable to Andean quipu conceptualizations and European emblem books. The book integrates textual rhetoric familiar from legal petitions to the Real Audiencia and the Council of the Indies alongside illustrated exempla recalling medieval chronicle practices found in works associated with Gustavus Adolphus collections and princely libraries.
Guamán Poma documents abuses by colonial actors including encomenderos, officials of the Corregimiento system, and clergy associated with the Catholic Church while describing indigenous social institutions such as ayllus and traditional authorities reminiscent of preconquest rulers like Manco Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac. The narrative engages themes found in the writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, critiques of the Encomienda system, and reforms echoed in the New Laws (1542), addressing epidemics, forced labor systems including mit'a, and conflicts involving Potosí silver mining and colonial fiscal practices of the Casa de la Contratación. Visual denunciations target officials connected to Lima Cathedral, corregidores in Cusco, and royal representatives such as viceroys whose administrations were recorded in audiencia proceedings.
The manuscript's hundreds of drawings employ a hybrid visual language that fuses Andean iconography traceable to artifacts from Moche and Wari horizons with European iconographic types visible in prints circulating from Seville and Antwerp. Guamán Poma's script alternates between Quechua lexicon and Spanish composition, showing literacy practices comparable to bilingual texts by Garcilaso de la Vega and missionary grammars like those of Bernabé Cobo and José de Acosta. Illustrative techniques resonate with pen-and-ink work used in atlases and chronicles by Hernán Cortés's era cartographers and with pictorial conventions found in Florentine and Seville workshops.
Scholars have situated the manuscript within broader currents involving Spanish colonization of the Americas, indigenous advocacy, and Atlantic legal culture shaped by jurists such as Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda and Hernán Cortés's contested legacy. It has influenced modern historians of the Andes, including those publishing in institutions like the Real Academia de la Historia, the British Museum, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and figures in debates about indigenous voice comparable to discussions around Tenochtitlan accounts and Florentine Codex materials by Bernardino de Sahagún. Reception history involves collectors from Rosenborg Castle to the Royal Library of Denmark and scholarship by academics at universities including Harvard University, University of Oxford, and Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
After its compilation, the manuscript traveled through networks of petition and collection, eventually entering European royal collections and surfacing in the Royal Library, Copenhagen at Rosenborg. Its transmission intersects with the circulation of manuscripts like the Florentine Codex and chronicles by Rodrigo de Quiroga, passing through dealers, diplomats, and libraries in Madrid, Paris, and Copenhagen. Modern facsimiles and critical editions have been prepared by presses and institutions such as the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and university presses in Lima, Madrid, and Copenhagen, while digital projects have made images available alongside comparative holdings from archives like the Archivo General de Indias and the British Library.
Category:Andean manuscripts